Some evidence has accumulated showing that keeping goal private has inconsistent effects on employees’ goal engagement. A lack of construct clarity and the absence of a validated measure to assess employees’ goal hiding behavior have held scholarship back. In study 1, We utilize the critical incident technique, offer a definition of goal hiding behavior, and develop and validate a measure of this construct. Knowledge about how such behavior impacts employees who exhibit it is limited. Drawing upon face management theory, we develop and test a model that specifies how and when engaging in goal hiding behavior has benefits for employees. In study 2, using multi-wave paired data, we find that engaging in goal hiding behavior is associated with reduced face maintain concern. Moreover, goal hiding behavior have a positive indirect effect on goal engagement through reducing face maintain concern. The strength of these beneficial effects is also bound by job performance. Specifically, employees with high performance experience more positive and negative face concern, so they are more likely to engage in goal hiding behavior. Together, these results help to clarify when and how it is beneficial to keep goals hidden, and yield implications for goal management and information regulation practices aimed at facilitating goal engagement.
