Investigating the impact of work stress and knowledge transfer on employee agility performance: work-related ESM usage as a moderator

Purpose Drawing on the “communication visibility theory,” this paper aims to analyze the connections between work stress and employee agility through employee knowledge sharing and hiding behavior. The paper also studies the associated benefits of “Enterprise Social Media” (ESM) along with knowledge sharing and employee agility performance to understand the linkage of ESM with employee knowledge sharing, hiding and employee agility performance. Design/methodology/approach This study employed the survey technique to analyze the proposed research model. The target audience was Chinese workers and ESM users working in different companies. Existing validated measurement items were used and computed using a five-point Likert scale. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used on 448 entries using AMOS version 24.0. Findings The results indicate that “challenge stressor” is significantly interconnected with employee “knowledge sharing” and has a negative effect on “knowledge hiding” behavior. “Hindrance stressor” is observed to be negatively related to employee “knowledge sharing” behavior while having a positive effect on employee “knowledge hiding” behavior. The results also specify that knowledge sharing is significantly connected with individual agility, whereas knowledge hiding is negatively associated with it. Furthermore, work-related ESM usage significantly strengthens the connection between knowledge sharing and employee agility. Originality/value This research analyzes the moderating role of work-related ESM usage on the link between knowledge sharing, hiding and employee agility performance, thereby enhancing existing literature on ESM usage and offering empirical support for its use in the workplace. The results highlight the importance of work-related ESM usage as a catalyst for knowledge sharing and adaptability while revealing the complex relationships between these variables.