The Service Industries Journal

ISSN: 0264-2069 (Print) 1743-9507 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fsij20

Ethical leadership and knowledge hiding: an

intervening and interactional analysis

Muhammad Khalid Anser, Moazzam Ali, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad

Luqman Tauheed Rana & Zahid Yousaf

To cite this article: Muhammad Khalid Anser, Moazzam Ali, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad
Luqman Tauheed Rana & Zahid Yousaf (2020): Ethical leadership and knowledge
hiding: an intervening and interactional analysis, The Service Industries Journal, DOI:
10.1080/02642069.2020.1739657

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2020.1739657

Published online: 27 Mar 2020.

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THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL
https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2020.1739657

Ethical leadership and knowledge hiding: an intervening and

interactional analysis
道德领导力与知识隐藏：基于干预与互动的分析视角
Muhammad Khalid Anser a, Moazzam Ali b, Muhammad Usman c
,
Muhammad Luqman Tauheed Rana c and Zahid Yousaf d
a
School of Public Administration, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Beilin, People’s Republic of
China; bDepartment of Management Sciences, University of Okara, Okara, Punjab, Pakistan; cDepartment of
Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore, Pakistan; dGovernment College of
Management Sciences, Abbottabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The work at hand examined the mediating role of meaningful work Received 12 October 2019
in the negative association between ethical leadership and service Accepted 2 March 2020
employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior. The role of harmonious
KEYWORDS
work passion as a contingent factor of the direct association Ethical leadership;
between ethical leadership and service employees’ knowledge- meaningful work; knowledge
hiding behavior was also tested. Based on time-lagged (three hiding; harmonious work
waves, two months apart) survey data collected from 471 passion; service employees
employees working in 52 service sector firms spanning different
industries, the results showed a negative association between 关键词
ethical leadership and service employees’ engagement in 道德领导力；有意义的工
knowledge-hiding behaviors, both directly and indirectly, via 作；知识隐藏；和谐工作
热情；服务业员工
meaningful work. It was also found that the direct association
between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding was contingent
on harmonious work passion. The findings suggest that managers
can deter service employees’ engagement in knowledge-hiding
behaviors and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by
demonstrating ethical behaviors and bolstering employees’
perceptions of meaningful work.

摘要
本研究探讨了有意义的工作在道德领导力与服务业中员工知识隐
藏行为之间负相关关系的中介作用。此外，本研究还验证了和谐
工作热情在道德领导与服务员工知识隐藏行为之间直接关联的偶
然因素的作用。基于时滞(三波，两个月的间隔)的调查，本研究
收集了来自52个不同行业的服务公司的471名员工的数据，结果
显示，道德领导和服务业中员工的知识隐藏行为之间存在直接和
间接的负相关关系。此外，研究发现道德领导力与知识隐藏之间
的直接联系取决于和谐的工作热情。研究结果表明，管理者可以
通过展示道德行为和增强员工对有意义工作的感知来阻止服务员
工的知识隐藏行为，从而获得可持续的竞争优.

CONTACT Muhammad Usman hmusman@cuilahore.edu.pk Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS

University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 1.5 KM Defence Road, Off Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

Introduction
Knowledge hiding – ‘intentional attempt by an individual to withhold or conceal knowledge
that has been requested by another person’ – (Connelly et al., 2012, p. 65) jeopardizes man-
agers’ efforts and strategies developed to enhance firms’ growth and development (Černe
et al., 2017; Zhao & Xia, 2019). Past research suggests that knowledge hiding harms employ-
ees’ interpersonal relationship dynamics, creativity, and innovation that can impede firms’
performance and long-term success (Černe et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2016). The impairment of
interpersonal relationships and knowledge transfer mechanisms can be more harmful for
service organizations, mainly because of the intangibility, inconsistency in the delivery per-
formance of the services, and the simultaneous production and consumption of the ser-
vices (Kirillova et al., 2020) that require intensive information exchanges between service
employees (Cantor & Li, 2019; Cho, 2019; Storey et al., 2016). Moreover, the growing and
volatile nature of customers’ demands requires creativity, innovation, and smooth flow
interpersonal exchanges of significant knowledge among service employees to meet
such demands (Altinay & Taheri, 2019; Bueno et al., 2019; Cho, 2019; Szutowski, 2019;
Singh et al., 2020; Storey et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2016). Despite the detrimental effects of
knowledge hiding on the service sector firms, the phenomenon of knowledge hiding has
largely been glossed over in the service organizations (Zhao et al., 2016; Zhao & Xia,
2019). Thus, there is little known about the managerial interventions that can undermine
service employees’ engagement in knowledge-hiding behaviors. Therefore, there have
been growing calls to study the phenomenon of knowledge hiding in service sector
firms (Zhao et al., 2016; Zhao & Xia, 2019).
Indeed, a few studies in the general literature (e.g. Abdullah et al., 2019; Men et al., 2018)
have made valuable contributions by showing that ethical leadership is negatively associ-
ated with knowledge hiding and thus, suggesting employees’ involvement in knowledge
hiding can be deterred by modeling their ethical conduct and pro-social behaviors.
However, there is a scarcity of research on the mediators and the boundary conditions
of the negative association of ethical leadership with knowledge hiding. These omissions
leave a serious void in our knowledge of why and when ethical leaders deter employees’
engagement in knowledge-hiding behaviors. Therefore, scholars (e.g. Abdullah et al., 2019;
Men et al., 2018) have called for further exploration of the factors that can mediate and
moderate the linkage of ethical leadership with knowledge hiding. Thus, the impetus of
the work at hand is to plug in this knowledge void. That is, the aim of the present research
work is to foreground some factors that serve as the mediators and boundary conditions
of this negative association between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding by contex-
tualizing the proposed hypotheses in service sector firms.
To advance our understanding of why ethical leadership has a negative association
with service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors, drawing on the Conservation of
Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989), we propose that meaningful work (MW hence-
forth) as an important mechanism underlying the negative association of ethical leader-
ship with service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors. Abdullah et al. (2019) and
Men et al. (2018) have shown that relational social capital and psychological safety
climate mediate the negative influence of ethical leadership on knowledge hiding,
respectively. However, the role of MW as a mediator of this relationship has not been
studied in previous studies. We argue that studying the role of MW is important due to
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 3

several reasons. First, extant literature suggests that intensifying competition has trans-
formed managers’ focus from social values – providing best care possible and solidarity
– to financial gains that has created a disconnection between economic and social
values and a crisis of meaning and purpose (Bailey et al., 2019; Emery & Giauque, 2003).
Employees who perceive their work meaningless, trivial, and worthless demonstrate anti-
social and dysfunctional behaviors, such as cynicism (Holbeche & Springett, 2009; Spreit-
zer, 1996) and alienation from work and work context (Khan, Jianguo, et al, 2019).
Therefore, there are growing calls (e.g. Kirillova et al., 2020; Lysova et al., 2019; Usman
et al., 2019) for identifying the factors that can help organizations overcome the issues
related to the crisis of meaning at the workplace.
Second, numerous scholars have posited MW as employees’ fundamental right and a
moral issue and argued that enhancing employees’ experience of MW as leaders’ moral
obligation (Bowie, 1998; Michaelson, 2005; Michaelson et al., 2014; Wang & Lin, 2018).
Honesty, fairness, integrity, and respectfulness are ethical leadership’s fundamental build-
ing blocks (Brown et al., 2005). Ethical leaders show concern for others, including their fol-
lowers and society at large (Brown et al., 2005). Indeed, ethics is the ethical leadership’s
core principle and promise (Brown & Treviño, 2006). Therefore, it is expected that
ethical leadership fulfills its moral obligation of providing employees with the experience
of MW by creating work conditions based on fairness, honesty, and integrity. Thus, we
understand that ethical leadership has important theoretical implications for enhancing
MW and can help organizations address the crisis of meaning and purpose in the
current era of the competitive environment.
Finally, MW is the most valued job characteristic for the majority of employees (Cascio,
2003) that leads to several employees’ work-related constructive outcomes, for instance,
reduced stress (Elangovan et al., 2010), job satisfaction (Sparks & Schenk, 2001), work
engagement (Chen et al., 2011), and affective commitment (Jiang & Johnson, 2018;
Usman et al., 2019). Importantly, employees who aspire to work, which serves a greater
good and carries valence for others, unlearn destructive and unethical practices and beha-
viors (e.g. knowledge-hiding behaviors) (Usman et al., 2019) and demonstrate care and
concerns for co-workers’ personal and professional needs (e.g. co-workers’ knowledge
needs) (Khan, Jianguo, Ali, et al., 2019; Khari & Sinha, 2017; Yuan et al., 2018). According
to the COR theory, MW is a critical personal resource (Byrne et al., 2016; Hu et al., 2019),
which would inspire employees to provide the requested knowledge to peers as a form
of investment to increase their future resource gains. In this backdrop, the present
study argues that MW has significant theoretical relevance in preventing employees’
engagement in deceptive and unethical behaviors, such as information equivocation
and falsification. Together, we understand that MW can serve as a significant underlying
mechanism that elucidates why ethical leadership can deter knowledge hiding.
However, the role of MW as a mechanism underlying this negative association of ethical
leadership with knowledge hiding has been glossed over in previous studies. Thus, the
present study offers unique contributions by explicating why ethical leadership dis-
courages employees’ deliberate attempts to hide the requested knowledge. By doing
so, the work at hand signifies the consequential potential of MW for deterring knowledge
hiding and offers a new vantage point to the service organizations’ managers for discoura-
ging knowledge hiding. Therefore, the study not only contributes to the scholarship on the
link between ethical leadership and employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors but also
4 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

extends the nomological networks of consequences and predictors of MW. The study also
resonates with the calls for further research to help organizations overcome the issues
related to the crisis of MW in the current competitive business environment (Bailey
et al., 2019; Kirillova et al., 2020; Usman et al., 2019).
Moreover, to foreground the contingencies of the association of ethical leadership with
knowledge hiding in the service context, building from the COR theory, we propose that
harmonious work passion (HWP henceforth) (Vallerand et al., 2003) moderates this link
between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. The present work targets its investi-
gation toward the contingent effect of HWP on the association of ethical leadership
with service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors, as HWP is more consistently
related to constructive outcomes than its counterpart, obsessive work passion (Burke
et al., 2015). Harmoniously passionate employees dedicate more time and invest extra
energy to their work and remain involved in their work to attain positive outcomes,
such as work engagement, task performance, pro-social behaviors, and psychological well-
being (Forest et al., 2011; Ho et al., 2011; Trépanier et al., 2014). HWP enhances service
employees’ pro-social behaviors, such as customer service behavior (Teng, 2019).
Importantly, HWP is a valued personal resource (Astakhova, 2015) that we argue can
make a difference in the effectiveness of ethical leadership for undermining service
employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors. By empirically showing that HWP strengthens
the negative association of ethical leadership with service employees’ knowledge hiding
behaviors, the study contributed to the scant literature that has explored the moderators
of the direct relationship between these two constructs. Indeed, to the best of our knowl-
edge, there is only one study (Abdullah et al., 2019) that has studied the boundary con-
ditions of the direct association of ethical leadership with knowledge hiding. By doing
so, the present study also extends the scope of the potential benefits of this form of
passion. Finally, Ho et al. (2018) called for further research on the outcomes of HWP, con-
sidering its positive influences on employees’ behavioral and performance outcomes and
the lack of empirical evidence on its antecedents and consequences for employees and
organizations. Thus, the work at hand also responded to these calls for further research
on HWP (Hu et al., 2019). Figure 1 depicts the hypothesized model.

Figure 1. Hypothesized model – interrelations between ethical leadership, meaningful work, harmo-
nious work passion, and knowledge hiding.
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 5

Theory and hypothesis development

Knowledge hiding
Knowledge hiding is a deliberate effort to conceal, falsify, and provide equivocal
knowledge in response to others’ knowledge requests (Connelly et al., 2012). Knowl-
edge hiding has been conceptualized in the form of its three dimensions – playing
dumb, evasive hiding, rationalized hiding. In the rationalized hiding, the hiders hide
knowledge and complement it with an explanation of why the knowledge seekers’
request has been turned down. In the evasive knowledge hiding, the hiders stall or
provide less information than was asked for. Playing dumb entails hiders’ pretense
of not having the requested information. Despite being conceptually different, these
dimensions of knowledge hiding can have similar destructive outcomes. For
example, no matter what strategy the knowledge hider uses, the uniform outcome
is that the knowledge requested has been denied. The denial can be construed as
social rejection, and in certain situations, deception by knowledge seekers (Černe
et al., 2017). Likewise, distorted knowledge or providing less information can result
in ineffective strategies and wrong decisions that can have far-reaching destructive
consequences for individuals and organizations (Černe et al., 2017).
According to Connelly et al. (2012), the concept of knowledge hiding is different
from other related concepts, such as a lack of knowledge sharing, which may not
necessarily involve intentional falsification or equivocation of knowledge; rather, it
can be the result of the absence of knowledge itself. However, knowledge hiding
entails intentions to falsify or conceal knowledge. Moreover, knowledge hiding
involves concealing knowledge in response to a specific request, and thus, can be
motivated by anti-social or instrumental drives. However, the lack of knowledge
sharing takes place without specific prompting to provide knowledge, and thus, it
may not be motivated by anti-social drives (Connelly & Zweig, 2015; Škerlavaj
et al., 2018).

The COR theory

The COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll et al., 2018) suggests that individuals acquire,
retain, protect, invest, and foster valued resources, such as social support, objects, con-
ditions, psychological and physical energies, and personal characteristics, that help them
cope with the stressful events and demands. The COR theory further suggests that
anticipated resource gains and losses are important determinants of employees’ work-
related behaviors (Hobfoll, 1989). Moreover, resources in one domain, such as job
resources, enhance resources in other domains, such as psychological resources. The
COR theory also states that individuals endeavor to create resource surplus by reinvest-
ing their resources (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2000). Moreover, individuals with more resources
demonstrate a higher level of willingness for enhancing their resource reservoirs. Impor-
tantly, they reinvest their resources when they expect future resource gains and when
they do not feel the fear of net loss of resources. The COR theory (Hobfoll et al.,
2018) further posits that individuals’ emotions and behaviors cross over and transmit
from one person to another, such as from a leader to subordinates.
6 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

Ethical leadership and knowledge hiding

Ethical leaders demonstrate honesty, fairness, a sense of responsibility, and concern for
their followers’ personal and professional needs (Brown et al., 2005; Yeşiltaş & Tuna,
2018). Ethical leaders provide emotional support and other resources to their subordinates
that are helpful for performing their work roles (Brown & Treviño, 2006). Therefore,
employees working under ethical leaders’ supervision gain access to important job
resources, such as emotional support, feedback, care, and help from their supervisors (Kal-
shoven et al., 2011; Kalshoven & Boon, 2012). The COR theory states that job resources,
such as ethical leadership, initiates resources’ positive spiral, and thus, help individuals
increase their resource reservoirs (Kalshoven & Boon, 2012). The COR theory also states
that employees reinvest their resources if they expect future resource gains, as well as if
they do not feel a fear of net loss of resources. We understand that employees working
under ethical leaders’ supervision may not hide the requested knowledge because of
the following two reasons. First, as ethical leaders take care of their followers’ personal
and professional needs and provide them support, they provide the followers with a
safety net to fall back on when threatened with the net loss of resources (Kalshoven &
Boon, 2012). Second, employees would conceive offering of the requested knowledge
as an investment of resources that may increase their future resource gains, as such
acts can be self-fulfilling, a source of developing high-quality relationships, and can initiate
a spiral of positive exchanges (Connelly et al., 2012).
Additionally, the COR theory (Hobfoll et al., 2018) suggests that positive emotions and
positive behaviors cross over and transmit from one person to the other. Drawing from the
COR theory, prior studies have offered empirical evidence that positive behaviors, such as
creative behaviors (Zhou, 2003) and job crafting behaviors (Peeters et al., 2016), transmit
from one person to the others in the workplace. Building on the concept of the cross-over
of positive behaviors, we understand that the ethical leadership’s traits – honesty, sense of
responsibility, and concern for others – transmit from the leader to the followers. There-
fore, we argue that employees who demonstrate care for others and show a sense of
responsibility towards their peers are likely to demonstrate a positive intent to meet
their peers’ personal and professional knowledge needs by fulfilling their knowledge
requests rather than concealing knowledge from them. Similarly, we expect that honest
employees may not engage in misleading and unethical conduct, such as concealing or
distorting information from their peers. Indeed, the scarce published work (e.g. Abdullah
et al., 2019; Men et al., 2018) has empirically shown that ethical leadership undermines
employees’ engagement in information falsification and concealing. Thus, it is expected
that ethical leaders can deter service employees’ engagement in knowledge hiding.
While the influence from top leadership is sighted as a highly significant on employees’
behavioral and performance outcomes (Mayer et al., 2009), our focus is on supervisors as
ethical leaders. Our attention towards supervisors’ ethical leadership is influenced by the
uniqueness of the association between supervisors and their employees, frequent inter-
actions and communication and the close physical proximity (Johnson et al., 2010) that
we understand increases the possibility of supervisors’ influence on employees’ MW
and knowledge-hiding behaviors. Supervisors also play a vital role in implementing and
propagating top management policies, tone, and agenda in an organization (Davis & Roth-
stein, 2006). According to Davis and Rothstein (2006), immediate supervisors’ role for
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 7

employees’ outcomes is also imperative, as they usually reward and discipline their work-
related practices and outcomes. Thus, the ethical leadership’s unit of analysis for the
present study is the supervisors’ ethical leadership.
Hypothesis 1. Ethical leadership has a negative relationship with service employees’
knowledge-hiding behavior.

Meaningful work
MW refers to employees’ perception that work has significant contributions in their per-
sonal life and professional development, as well as carries valance for the others (Steger
et al., 2012). While the concept of MW has rich history with its roots in alienation (a
sense of social estrangement or a lack of meaningful connection and social support) tra-
ditions (Blauner, 1964; Marx, 1932; Seeman, 1959), it is gaining more attention in recent
scholarship in different fields including organizational psychology, work sociology, politi-
cal theory, business ethics and corporate social responsibility (Collier & Esteban, 2007;
Michaelson et al., 2014; Usman et al., 2019). Growing scholarship on MW is inspired by
its positive relationship with constructive work-related outcomes, such as work engage-
ment (Jung & Yoon, 2016) and organizational commitment, (Geldenhuys et al., 2014).
These accounts of MW make significant contributions to the theory and practice.
However, these accounts gloss over the inherent characteristics of work, job or task that
can be perceived as meaningful and the context in which work takes place (Rosso et al.,
2010). Moreover, these accounts do not adequately appreciate the importance of work
and organization for the survival and development of society at large (Steger et al., 2012).
To address these limitations, Steger et al. (2012) conceptualized MW as a broader con-
struct, which is composed of three distinct yet interrelated dimensions – greater good
motivation, positive meaning, meaning-making through work. Positive meaning refers
to employees’ perception that work is positive and contributes to the quest for
meaning in life. Meaning-making through work refers to employees’ perceptions that
work enhances their understanding of the self and the world around them and inspires
their personal growth. Greater good motivation refers to individuals’ feelings that their
work contributes to others and society at large, as well as carries significance for the
larger system of inputs and outputs (Steger et al., 2012).

Meaningful work as a mediator

Ethical leadership is a value-based inspirational leadership that envisions a greater good –
a bigger purpose of achieving socially-responsible organizational goals and serving
employees, society, and other stakeholders – through decisions, actions, and behaviors
that stem out from ethics (Brown et al., 2005; Usman et al., 2018). Ethical leaders commu-
nicate the transcendental importance of employees’ work activities that create value con-
gruence between job values and employees’ self-value system (Demirtas et al., 2017;
Michaelson et al., 2014; Usman & Hameed, 2017). Ethical leaders can shape employees’
MW experience by creating work practices, such as job design and characteristics
(Steger et al., 2012), and highlighting the significance of work for others and the
broader context within which the work is performed (Bailey et al., 2019). In other words,
ethical leaders can positively influence followers’ sense of positive meaning and greater
8 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

good motivation by embedding purpose and significance into the objective conditions of
the followers’ work and signifying the contributions that their work carries for the organ-
ization, co-workers, and society at large (Michaelson et al., 2014; Kalshoven & Boon, 2012).
Likewise, ethical leadership positively contributes to meaning-making by helping employ-
ees understand different questions, for example, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What is important to me’
regarding relationships with work and the work context and developing employees’ ability
to identify and internalize moral values as salient feature of their self-concept (Michaelson
et al., 2014). Based on these arguments, it can be inferred that ethical leadership can posi-
tively shape MW.
Additionally, MW is a valuable personal resource (Byrne et al., 2016; Hu et al., 2019).
Seen through the lens of the COR theory, possessing valuable personal resources inspires
individuals to invest resources in the form of positive behaviors, as they anticipate such
behaviors will help them gain future resources (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2000). Thus, based on
the COR, we argue that MW is a valuable resource produced by ethical leadership that
would inspire employees to provide the requested knowledge in expectation to generate
future resource gains.
Moreover, employees’ inspiration to involve in work activities that carry valence for
others may not engage in deception (Usman et al., 2019), such as information equivo-
cation and falsification. Indeed, intentional concealing or falsifying information from
peers contradicts with greater good motivation (Usman et al., 2019). In a similar vein,
employees who seek to contribute to the welfare of others may not indulge in unethical
behaviors (Bowie, 1998; Demirtas et al., 2017; Michaelson, 2005), such as deception
involved in knowledge-hiding behavior that can be destructive to their peers’ learning
and performance. Moreover, the perception of MW creates a close bond among employ-
ees (Sparks & Schenk, 2001), suggesting that MW discourages socially-displeasing beha-
viors, such as rejection involved in knowledge-hiding behaviors.
Finally, Khari and Sinha (2017) propose that employees who perceive their work mean-
ingful for their own lives and organizational success and conceive their efforts and contri-
butions as a part of serving some greater good may take pleasure in helping others (e.g.
fulfilling others knowledge-related needs). Similarly, Demirtas et al. (2017) suggest that
employees’ perceptions that their contributions play a significant role in the accomplish-
ment of organizational goals encourage them to unlearn unethical behaviors, such as
knowledge hiding behaviors. Extant studies have shown that MW undermines service
employees’ behaviors that are harmful and undesirable to organizations (Wang & Lin,
2018), such as knowledge-hiding behaviors. Thus, it is likely that an enhanced sense of
MW discourages service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior.
Hypothesis 2. Service employees’ perceptions of MW mediate the negative association
between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding.

Harmonious work passion

Work passion refers to individuals’ strong inclination toward work-related activities that
they enjoy and invest their energy and time (Vallerand et al., 2003). The concept of
work passion has gained much attention from researchers because of its effect on employ-
ees’ work-related constructive outcomes, such as work engagement and task performance
(Forest et al., 2011; Ho et al., 2011; Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand, 2015). The dualistic
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 9

model (Vallerand et al., 2003) categorized work passion into two forms – HWP and obses-
sive work passion that stem from different processes through which an individual interna-
lizes an activity into his/her identity. HWP refers to an individual’s autonomous
internalization of work activities into his/her identity through volition and personal endor-
sement (Forest et al., 2011; Vallerand, 2015). On the contrary, obsessive passion refers to a
forceful and controlled internalization of work activities that develop an internal pressure
to engage in these activities (Forest et al., 2011).
HWP positively contributes to several employees’ work-related outcomes, such as com-
mitment, work engagement, psychological wellbeing, pro-social behaviors, and task per-
formance (Forest et al., 2011; Ho et al., 2011; Ho et al., 2018); whereas, obsessive work
passion can inflate several negative behaviors, such as depression, decreased psychologi-
cal wellbeing, and reduced cognitive attention (Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand et al.,
2014). HWP positively shapes service employees’ pro-social and proactive behaviors
(Teng, 2019).

Harmonious work passion as a moderator

Harmoniously passionate employees consider work activities as an important source of
shaping their identities and therefore, voluntarily engage in work activities to derive plea-
sure, enjoyment, and satisfaction (Forest et al., 2011). Harmoniously passionate individuals
build high-quality interpersonal relationships (i.e. relationships based on mutual trust, care,
and cooperation) with others (e.g. coworkers) to enhance their relationship satisfaction,
which, in turn, enhances their ability and willingness to help others, such as coworkers
(Ho & Pollack, 2014; Philippe et al., 2010). Based on the COR theory, we understand that
harmonious passion is a critical personal resource that facilitates the acquisition of valu-
able resources (Astakhova, 2015), such as pleasure, enjoyment, trust-based relationships
with peers, relationship satisfaction, and job satisfaction, suggesting that harmoniously
passionate employees would be encouraged to fulfill their peers’ knowledge needs by pro-
viding the requested knowledge rather than hiding it.
Additionally, knowledge hiding occurs in individuals’ dyadic interactions (Connelly
et al., 2012), generally governed by unspoken social exchange processes (Blau, 1964).
Therefore, high-quality interpersonal relationships and the willingness to help others
may draw positive norms of reciprocity, which discourages knowledge hiding (Connelly
et al., 2012). Moreover, harmoniously passionate employees have a strong tendency to
initiate the positive social exchange process by virtue of having a strong inclination to
build high-quality interpersonal relationships and the willingness to help coworkers and
perform extra-role behaviors (Ho & Pollack, 2014; Philippe et al., 2010). Therefore, we
argue that individuals with high HWP have less likelihood of engaging in knowledge-
hiding behaviors than those with low HWP.
Proceeding further, the COR theory states that the reinvestment of resources increases
in the absence of threats of net resource loss, and individuals with more resources demon-
strate more willingness to acquire and reinvest their resources. Therefore, drawing on the
COR theory, we argue that employees who are already in the possession of resources (e.g.
HWP) demonstrate a higher level of willingness to invest and increase their future resource
gains. Moreover, as compared with others, employees with high HWP would be more
willing to reinvest their resources while working under the ethical leaders’ supervision
10 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

because of the perception that ethical leaders can compensate for the net loss of resources
(Kalshoven & Boon, 2012). Together, as compared with others, employees with high HWP
are more likely to provide the requested knowledge as a form of investment of resources
to increase their future resource gains while working under the ethical leaders’ supervi-
sion. Put it differently, employees with high HWP are less likely to hide the requested
knowledge when working under the ethical leaders’ supervision. Thus, we expect that
HWP strengthens the effectiveness of ethical leadership in undermining knowledge
hiding.
Hypothesis 3. HWP moderates the negative association between ethical leadership and
service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior, such that the association is strong when
HWP is high.

Research method
Data collection and analysis
We collected data from 471 employees in 52 service sector firms operating across
different industries, such as banking, hospitality, insurance, modaraba, and telecommu-
nication. The present study employed a time-lagged strategy to collect data. Data collec-
tion was completed in three waves that were separated by a two-month time lag. Data
about the independent variable (ethical leadership) and the moderator (HWP) were col-
lected in the first wave. Data about work experience, education, gender, and age were
also collected in the first wave. We collected data about MW and service employees’
knowledge-hiding behaviors in the second and third waves, respectively. The survey
was conducted in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. The aim was to remove the
language barriers. A back-translation technique (Brislin, 1990) was used for the trans-
lation of the survey instrument. Five academicians and ten respondents pilot tested
the questionnaire.
We randomly chose 55 service sector firms from the firms listed in the Pakistan
Stock exchange. We managed access to 52 firms through personal and professional
references. Depending on the size of the firms (the number of employees in each
firm), three to ten employees were randomly chosen from the list of employees of
each of the randomly chosen firms. Questionnaires, consent forms, and information
sheets were handed over to the respondents through our references who facilitated
access to the chosen firms. A total of 824 questionnaires were distributed in the
first wave. We received 535 filled questionnaires in the first wave. Moreover, 519
filled questionnaires were received in the second wave, and 488 filled questionnaires
were received the third wave. However, 17 responses had missing data, and thus,
471 responses (57.16% net response rate) from 52 firms were used in the data analysis.
Unique codes on the questionnaires helped us match the respondents’ responses from
different data collection waves.
The final sample included 194 (41.19%) males and 277 (58.89%) females. Respondents’
average age was 36.23 years, while their average work experience was 7.13 years. Data
showed that 21.9% of the respondents had completed matriculation (10 years of school-
ing, the minimum threshold required to apply for a job in the sample companies), 18.7%
had 12 years of schooling, 26.8% had a technical diploma (13 years of education), 22.9%
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 11

had completed an undergraduate’s degree, and 10.8% held a master’s degree or above.
Data were analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro for SPSS and AMOS 24.0.
Time-lagged data helped us reduce common method variance. Past research has
highlighted that the time-lagged strategy is appropriate to reduce common method
bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Moreover, to test the data for the common method
bias, we used Herman’s single factor. The results illustrated that the single factor
accounted for 34.33% < .50, the cut-off point. Thus, common method bias was not
an issue in our data.

Measures and variables

A five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was used
to measure the variables. A ten-item scale (Brown et al., 2005) was used to measure ethical
leadership. ‘My supervisor listens to what employees have to say’ was a sample item.
MW was measured using a ten-item scale from Steger et al. (2012). The MW scale con-
sists of three facets of MW – greater good motivation, positive meaning, and meaning-
making through work. ‘I know my work makes a positive difference in the world’
(greater good motivation), ‘My work helps me better understand myself’ (meaning-
making through work), and ‘I understand how my work contributes to my life’s
meaning’ (positive meaning) were the sample items. As we intended to examine the med-
iating role of the overall level of MW, following Steger et al. (2012), we used an overall
measure of MW. Fit indices were as follows: χ2(32) = 82.63, χ2/df = 2.58, RMSEA = .058,
GFI = .97, CFI = .98, TLI = .97, and IFI = .98.
Service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior was measured by adopting a 12-item
scale from Connelly et al. (2012) ‘Agreed to help my co-worker but never really intended
to’ (evasive hiding), ‘Pretended that I did not know the information’ (playing dumb), and
‘Told my co-worker that my boss would not let anyone share this knowledge’ (rationalized
hiding) were the sample items. As the purpose was to test the influence of ethical leader-
ship and MW on an overall level of service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior, the
overall measure of service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior was used. Such a
measure of knowledge hiding has also been used in previous studies (e.g. Abdullah
et al., 2019). The fit indices – χ2(51) = 145.60, χ2/df = 2.85, GFI = .95, RMSEA = .06, CFI
= .97, TLI = .97, and IFI = .97 – were in an acceptable range. A seven-item scale from Valler-
and et al. (2003) was adapted to measure HWP. ‘My job is in harmony with the other activi-
ties in my life’ was a sample item.

Control variables
Extant literature suggests that education, work experience, gender, and age can affect
individuals’ ethical behaviors (Marcus & Schuler, 2004; Usman et al., 2019), including
knowledge hiding behavior (Peng, 2013), as well as employees’ perception of MW
(Rosso et al., 2010). Therefore, we controlled for education, work experience, gender,
and age. However, since education, work experience, gender, and age showed insignifi-
cant correlations with the mediator and the outcome variable (Table 1), following
Becker (2005), the mediation and moderation results were presented without controls.
12 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

Results
Non-independence of the data
As 471 respondents of our study belonged to 52 firms, we examined the data for non-inde-
pendence. Following Bliese (2000), we calculated ICC (1) values for the outcome variable
(knowledge hiding) and the mediator (MW). The values of ICC (1) were .01 and .03 (ns) for
knowledge hiding and MW, respectively. Thus, non-independence was not an issue in our
data.

Correlations and means

Table 1 depicts correlations and means of the variables.

Measurement model
The measurement model was evaluated using CFA. The measurement model consisted of
ethical leadership (EL), meaningful work (MW), knowledge hiding (KH), and harmonious
work passion (HWP). All the items loaded significantly (p < .001). The fit indices demon-
strated that the model has a good fit with the data. The fit indices were as follows: χ2
(690) = 1421, χ2/df = 2.06, RMSEA = .05, CFI = .93, TLI = .93, and IFI = .93.
Composite reliability (CR), maximum shared variance (MSV), Cronbach’s alpha (α),
average shared variance (ASV), and average variance extracted (AVE) are presented in
Table 2. The scales demonstrated satisfactory levels of internal consistency (α > .70,
Table 2) and reliability (CR > .70, Table 2). The scales also showed satisfactory levels of con-
vergent and discriminant validities, as for all the variables, both MSV and ASV < AVE, as
well as the square root values of AVE > inter-construct correlations (Table 2).

Mediation results
Hayes’ PROCESS 4 (5000 bootstrapping was specified) was used to test hypotheses 1 and 2
(see Table 3 for the results). Thus, hypothesis 1 was supported (B = −.10, p < .01). Moreover,
we found a negative indirect (via MW) association between ethical leadership and knowl-
edge hiding (B = −.03, Lower limit = −.05, and Upper limit = −.01), showing that hypoth-
esis 2 was also accepted.

Table 1. Means and correlations.

Construct Means SD 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. EL 3.57 .87
2. MW 3.59 .73 .27**
3. KH 2.25 .68 −.17** −.18**
4. HWP 2.34 .94 −.06 −.10* .17**
5. Age 36.23 7.71 −.02 .09 −.03 −.06
6. Gender 1.59 .49 .04 −.02 .01 −.01 .05
7. Experience 7.13 5.50 −.07 .04 .01 −.08 .84** .01
Note. n = 471. EL= ethical leadership. MW = meaningful work. KH = knowledge hiding. HWP = harmonious work passion.
Gender: 1 = male, 2 = female.
*P < .05. **P < .01 level (2-tailed). SD = standard deviation.
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 13

Table 2. Discriminant validity, convergent validity, and reliability

Construct 1 2 3 4 CR AVE MSV ASV
1. Ethical leadership .76 .93 .58 .14 .06
2. Meaningful work .38 .78 .94 .61 .14 .08
3. Knowledge hiding −.20 −.26 .78 .95 .61 .07 .05
4. HWP −.08 −.12 .23 .75 .90 .56 .05 .02
Notes. n = 471. HWP = harmonious work passion. α = Cronbach’s alpha. CR = composite reliability. AVE = average variance
extracted. MSV = maximum variance shared. ASV = average variance shared. Bolded values on the diagonals of columns
2–8 are the square root values of AVE.

Table 3. Results for direct and indirect (mediation) effect (Hayes’ PROCESS: model 4).

Bootstrapped CI 95%
B SE T P LL UL R2
Model 1: mediator variable model Outcome: meaningful work
Ethical leadership .23 .04 6.00 .000 .15 .30 .07
Model 2: outcome variable model Outcome: knowledge hiding
Meaningful work −.14 .04 −3.09 .007 −.22 −.05 .05
Ethical leadership −.10 .04 −2.69 .002 −.17 −.03
Bootstrapping results for the indirect effect
Indirect effect of ethical leadership on knowledge hiding via −.03 .01 −.05 −.01
meaningful work
N = 471, B = Unstandardized regression coefficients, Bootstrap sample size = 5000, LL = Lower limit, CI = Confidence inter-
val, UL = Upper limit.

Moderation results
The moderating role of service employees’ HWP in the association between ethical leader-
ship and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors (hypothesis 3) was tested using
Hayes’ PROCESS (model 5). The results (Table 4) revealed that the interaction term
between HWP and ethical leadership had a significant effect on service employees’ knowl-
edge-hiding behaviors (B = −.15, p < .05), showing that HWP moderated the negative
association of ethical leadership with service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors.
The interactions of HWP and ethical leadership plotted at + 1/−1 SD from the mean of
HWP are depicted in Figure 2. The strength of the negative links of ethical leadership with
the service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors was examined at high and low levels
of HWP by conducting a simple slope test. The simple slope test revealed that the negative
association was strong (B = −.20, p < .001) for employees with high HWP, while there was
an insignificant association (B = .003, ns) for employees with low harmonious work. Thus,
hypothesis 3 was supported.

Discussion
In the present study, based on the COR theory, we hypothesized that ethical leadership is
negatively associated with service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors, directly and
indirectly, via MW. Additionally, we hypothesized that the negative association between
ethical leadership and knowledge hiding is contingent upon service employees’ HWP,
such that the association is strong for employees with high HWP than those with low
HWP. Time-lagged survey data collected from 471 employees in 52 service sector firms
from Pakistan and analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro for SPPS supported the pro-
posed relationships.
14 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

Table 4. Results of the moderation and mediation effect (Hayes’ PROCESS: model 5).
Bootstrapped CI
95%
B SE T p LL UL R2
Model 1: mediator variable model Outcome: meaningful work
Ethical leadership .23 .04 6.00 .00 .15 .30 .07
Model 2: outcome variable model Outcome: knowledge hiding
Ethical leadership .16 .09 1.68 .09 −.03 .34 .09
Meaningful work −.14 .04 −3.12 .00 −.22 −.05
HWP .49 .14 3.62 .00 .23 .76
Ethical leadership × HWP −.11 .04 −2.93 .00 −.18 −.04
Conditional direct effect of ethical leadership on knowledge hiding
HWP (−1 SD) .003 .05 .06 .95 −.09 .10
HWP (+1 SD) −.20 .05 −3.92 .00 −.31 −.10
Bootstrapping results for the indirect effect of ethical leadership on knowledge hiding (via meaningful work)
−.03 .01 −.05 −.01
N = 471, B = unstandardized regression coefficient. Bootstrap sample size = 5000. LL = lower limit. CI = confidence interval.
UL = upper limit. HWP = harmonious work passion.

Our findings showed ethical leadership has a negative relationship with service employ-
ees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors. The results provide support to the scarce literature that
revealed a negative association between these two important constructs (Abdullah et al.,
2019; Men et al., 2018). Our findings suggest that ethical leadership initiates resources’
positive spiral (Kalshoven & Boon, 2012) by providing emotional support to their followers
and taking care of their personal and professional needs. Working under the ethical
leaders’ supervision, service employees may not feel the fear of the net loss of resources
and therefore, they do not hide knowledge from their peers. Moreover, ethical leadership’s

Figure 2. Harmonious work passion (HWP) moderates the negative relationship between ethical lea-
dership and knowledge hiding.
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 15

traits, such as honesty and fairness transmit from the leader to the followers that discou-
rage their engagement in knowledge hiding behaviors.
We also found that MW mediates the negative association between ethical leadership
and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior. The results indicate that ethical lea-
dership’s behaviors and actions characterized by honesty, fairness, and a selfless
concern for their followers’ personal and professional needs, organizations, and overall
societal development (Kalshoven & Boon, 2012; Demirtas & Akdogan, 2015; Usman
et al., 2018) shape service employees’ sense of MW, which as an important personal
resource inspires them to provide the requested knowledge in expectation to generate
future resource gains.
Moreover, the present work established that the negative association between ethical
leadership and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior is contingent on the
service employees’ level of HWP, such that the association is strong for employees with
high HWP than those with low HWP. The findings indicate that when working under
the ethical leaders’ supervision, employees do not feel the threat of net loss of resources
by providing the requested knowledge; instead, they perceive fulfilling their peers’ knowl-
edge request as an opportunity to build future resource gains. Therefore, when working
under the ethical leaders’ supervision, employees in possession of more resources, such
as high HWP, are more willing to fulfill their peers’ knowledge requests.

Theoretical implications
The present work makes several contributions to different important knowledge areas.
First, prior work Abdullah et al. (2019) and Men et al. (2018) have shown that relational
social capital and psychological safety climate mediate the negative influence of ethical
leadership on knowledge hiding, respectively, the role of MW as a mediator of this
relationship has not been studied. The present study extended the literature (e.g. Abdullah
et al., 2019; Men et al., 2018) on the relationship between ethical leadership and knowl-
edge hiding by theorizing and showing that MW mediates the negative relationship
between these two constructs. Thus, the present work foregrounded MW as a mechanism
explaining why ethical leadership has a negative influence on the service employees’
knowledge-hiding behavior and contributed to the scant existing literature.
Our second contribution is to the scholarship on MW. The general literature on mean-
ingful provides imperative insights into the importance of MW for several employees’ posi-
tive outcomes (Steger et al., 2012; Usman et al., 2019). Likewise, the scarce literature on
MW in the service context shows that MW negatively affects service employees’ negative
behaviors, such as work-family conflict (Wang & Lin, 2018) and positively affects their
helping behaviors (Supanti & Butcher, 2019). However, to the best of our knowledge,
the general literature, as well as the service literature has not studied MW in association
with knowledge hiding or ethical leadership. Our study contributed to both the general
literature and the service literature on MW by revealing ethical leadership as a potential
antecedent of service employees’ MW and establishing MW as one of the imperative
factors that can act as the mediators of the negative association between ethical leader-
ship and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors. In doing so, the present work
offered new theoretical insights and provided empirical evidence that unfolds MW as
an underlying mechanism through which an ethical leader wields its influence on
16 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

service employees to discourage their involvement in knowledge hiding. In this way, our
study offered a response to the recent calls to enhance the nomological networks of the
concept of MW (Lysova et al., 2019; Usman et al., 2019).
Finally, our finding that the negative association between ethical leadership and knowl-
edge hiding was contingent upon the levels of service employees’ HWP extended different
imperative literature streams – ethical leadership, knowledge hiding, and work passion.
Despite being insightful, the extant general literature on HWP (e.g. Forest et al., 2011;
Ho et al., 2011; Vallerand, 2015) has not studied HWP as a contingent factor of the associ-
ation between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. In a similar vein, little is known
about the influence of HWP with ethical leadership and knowledge hiding in the service
context. By showing that HWP as a valued personal resource strengthens the negative
association between ethical leadership and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behav-
ior, the work at hand not only enhanced our knowledge of the contingencies of the nega-
tive association between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding but also extended
extant literature on HWP by bringing to the fore the value of its consequential potential
(Burke et al., 2015; Ho et al., 2018). This contribution is timely, given that, to the best of
our knowledge, there is only one study (Abdullah et al., 2019) that has studied the bound-
ary conditions of the direct association of ethical leadership with knowledge hiding.

Practical implications
The present work offers deeper insights into how service organizations may prevent
employees’ engagement in knowledge-hiding behaviors that are destructive for both
employees and organizations. The findings suggest that supervisors’ role as ethical
leaders is imperative in deterring these destructive behaviors. To achieve this end, super-
visors not only demonstrate and promote ethical conduct through their actions but also
communicate ethical values’ transcendental importance through communication. We
suggest that leadership needs to focus on instilling honesty and a sense of care for the
peers’ personal and professional needs so that they can extend selfless care towards
peers’ needs, including their needs related to professional knowledge.
Moreover, the supervisors should organize seminars to create awareness about the
importance of providing the requested knowledge for developing service innovation
capabilities of the organization. The supervisors should communicate to employees that
hiding knowledge or distorting information can be more harmful to service organizations.
The supervisors should inform employees that such behaviors can hamper service quality
and service delivery process mainly due to the simultaneity of the production and con-
sumption of services, whose successful provision is reliant on the smooth flow of knowl-
edge exchanges among employees and requires close relationships among employees.
Supervisors’ should conduct informal sessions with their subordinates to gain an insight
into the employees’ value system and listen to them to enhance the employees’ sense of
personal significance. These informal sessions enable supervisors to locate the target for
meaningful intervention to cultivate employee’s sense of MW. These sessions can help
managers to convey the transcendental importance of work and its significant contri-
bution towards the organization and society at large. By doing so, supervisors can instill
the true essence of service among employees that help them understand the importance
of work beyond the mere exchanges for economic gains and inspire greater good
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL 17

motivations. This would ultimately help managers discourage employees’ engagement in

knowledge-hiding behaviors.
Finally, we suggest HWP as an important source of discouraging service employees’
engagement in knowledge hiding. Supervisors should promote autonomous motivation
among employees by installing and exemplifying cooperative norms and behaviors that
drive employees to gain pleasure from work activities. To achieve this end, supervisors
can offer certificates of appreciation and incentives that may enhance intrinsic motivation
among employees. During the recruitment and selection process, top management
should not only focus on the individuals’ technical skills but also weigh their levels of
HWP. They can do so by including HWP’s scale as a part of the recruitment test or inter-
view. Finally, supervisors can use the Value Action Survey (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)
that would provide them an insight into the strength and weaknesses of employees
towards work, organization, and society that are fundamental to nurture and cultivate
HWP at the workplace. By doing so, a supervisor would be in a better position to make
the required interventions to undermine knowledge hiding.

Limitations and future research

This study is not without limitations. For instance, as far as data about ethical leadership
concerned, respondents were asked to rate their supervisors as ethical leaders. Data
from top management can offer further insight into how ethical behaviors can trickle
down and affect supervisors’ knowledge-hiding behaviors and ultimately influence
employees’ engagement in knowledge hiding. Similarly, we contextualized the theoretical
interrelations between supervisors’ ethical leadership, MW, HWP, and employees’ knowl-
edge-hiding behaviors in Pakistan, an emerging economy. Future studies can examine
these relationships in organizations from other geographical areas and countries to
enrich our understanding of these relationships.
Moreover, the literature suggests that integrity, honesty, and high moral standards
demonstrated by ethical leaders set the foundations of a trust-based culture (Eisenbeiß
& Brodbeck, 2014) that enhances employees’ willingness to cooperate with others in
and across functional teams (Mooradian et al., 2006) that may discourage employees’
knowledge-hiding behaviors. Thus, future studies should test the role of trust-based
culture in undermining knowledge hiding. Proceeding further, justice orientation refers
to ‘the extent to which individuals internalize justice as a moral virtue and are attentive
to fairness issues around them’ (Sasaki & Hayashi, 2014, p. 252). Past research has high-
lighted that the employees’ internalization of fairness and justice inspire them to regulate
their behaviors to build high quality interpersonal and instigate them to sacrifice their self-
interest to ensure moral and justice practice at the workplace (Cropanzano et al., 2003;
Sasaki & Hayashi, 2014; Sekiguchi & Hayashi, 2014). It would an interesting avenue for
future research to explore justice orientation as an underlying mechanism between the
linkage of ethical leadership and knowledge hiding.
Additionally, unlike HWP, obsessive work passion can inhibit individuals’ resources, and
therefore, may reduce their willingness to provide the requested knowledge to others.
Although the present study made important insights into the role of HWP in combination
with ethical leadership in deterring knowledge hiding, future studies can shed light on the
effect of obsessive work passion on service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior.
18 M. K. ANSER ET AL.

Finally, spiritual leadership through a transcendent vision coupled with hope and altruistic
love intrinsically motivates employees to foster positive social emotions, such as care and
concern for others, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, gratitude and helping (Fry, 2003;
Fry et al., 2005) that are the fundamental building blocks of developing and maintain
trust-based interpersonal relationships (Bayighomog & Araslı, 2019; Fry et al., 2005). As
high-quality, trust-based interpersonal relationships undermine employees’ knowledge-
hiding behaviors. Moreover, spiritual leadership through the simultaneous application of
rational determinants and ethical/spiritual values in decision making enables employees
to regulate their behavior to make better moral choices (Fry et al., 2005). With this in
mind, we suggest that spiritual leadership may undermine employee’s knowledge-
hiding behaviors, and it can be an interesting line of inquiry for future scholars.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Muhammad Khalid Anser http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1882-0907
Moazzam Ali http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3305-4438
Muhammad Usman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7818-4546
Muhammad Luqman Tauheed Rana http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2659-8306
Zahid Yousaf http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7903-9420

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