Purpose

This paper aims to study the adverse effects of performance motivation and goal setting. The study investigates the unethical behavior of knowledge hiding that requires moral disengagement. The research further investigates the influence of performance motivation on knowledge hiding, along with investigating the mediating effect of moral disengagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modeling has been adopted to understand the relationships. Data was collected from 288 students from Indian higher education institutions to understand how social cognitive aspects of performance influenced knowledge hiding.

Findings

The findings revealed that students hide knowledge from peers and rationalize the hiding process through social cognition of moral disengagement to justify the hiding process. It was further observed that performance motivation has a stronger relationship with rationalized knowledge hiding as compared to evasive knowledge hiding or playing dumb.

Research limitations/implications

By exploring the potential unintended yet detrimental consequences of performance motivation, this study adds to the scant literature on the drawbacks of ambitious goal setting. It also advances the performance motivation and knowledge hiding literature by exploring these constructs through the behavioral ethics lens of moral disengagement.

Practical implications

Awareness about the ill-effects of performance motivation of students and understanding the role of moral disengagement in the same will help administrators and policymakers to cautiously promote performance-driven culture within academia as well as in designing effective interventions for curbing the same.

Originality/value

The current study advances the extant literature on the negative side of ambitious goal setting and provides new insights into how it can encourage moral disengagement and knowledge-hiding behavior. Further, academic research on moral disengagement among students has been scarce. This study thus investigates how moral disengagement among students can promote detrimental behavior(s) of knowledge hiding. The study is one of the early studies to uncover moral disengagement as an antecedent to knowledge hiding.

中文翻译：

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绩效激励与知识隐藏：探索道德脱离在教育领域的作用

 目的

本文旨在研究绩效动机和目标设定的不利影响。该研究调查了需要道德疏离的知识隐藏的不道德行为。该研究进一步调查了绩效动机对知识隐藏的影响，并调查了道德脱离的中介作用。

设计/方法/方法

已采用结构方程建模来理解这些关系。从印度高等教育机构的 288 名学生那里收集了数据，以了解表现的社会认知方面如何影响知识隐藏。

 发现

研究结果显示，学生对同龄人隐藏知识，并通过道德脱离的社会认知将隐藏过程合理化，以证明隐藏过程的合理性。进一步观察到，与回避性知识隐藏或装傻相比，绩效动机与合理化知识隐藏的关系更强。

研究局限性/影响

通过探索绩效激励的潜在意外但有害的后果，本研究补充了关于雄心勃勃的目标设定的缺点的稀缺文献。它还通过道德脱离的行为伦理学视角探索这些结构，推进了表演动机和知识隐藏文献。

 实际意义

了解学生绩效激励的不良影响并了解道德脱离在其中的作用将有助于管理人员和政策制定者在学术界谨慎地促进绩效驱动文化，并设计有效的干预措施来遏制这种文化。

 原创性/价值

目前的研究推进了关于雄心勃勃的目标设定消极面的现有文献，并就它如何鼓励道德脱离和隐藏知识的行为提供了新的见解。此外，关于学生道德脱离的学术研究一直很少。因此，本研究调查了学生之间的道德脱离如何促进知识隐藏的有害行为。这项研究是揭示道德脱离是知识隐藏的前因的早期研究之一。