The Shared Experiences of Workplace Knowledge Management Among Executive Managers in American Online K-12 Schools

Workplace knowledge management practices inherently involve information asymmetry, a component of managerial practices that spreads through managerial behaviors rooted in mimetic isomorphism and absorptive capacity. During the 1990s, as the K-12 community expanded into e-commerce business practices, it inherited many of the workplace challenges associated with these evolving organizational environments. Existing research on information asymmetry reveals that knowledge hiding (KH) remains a persistent conceptual ambiguity, with studies offering conflicting conclusions about its psychological impact on employee dyads and its financial cost to organizations. Despite decades of inquiry within industrial and corporate environments, no studies have directly engaged highly committed, articulate, self-reporting participants about their shared experiences of workplace KH phenomenon within K-12 online school organizations. This study employs transcendental phenomenology to illuminate the critical elements of workplace KH as articulated by trusted executive managers within American K-12 online school organizations. Online schooling continues to expand, serving remote learners and students transitioning into the workplace. Illuminating how ineffective managerial practices proliferate within and across organizations has become increasingly vital. The purpose of this research is to clarify the delineations of workplace KH, given that the global workforce emerges from the K–12 community.