Although knowledge sharing is widely recognized as an essential key to promoting organizational learning and growth, employees may, under certain conditions, choose to hide knowledge when facing pressure factors, particularly performance-related pressure, which can ultimately hinder organizational development. This highlights the importance of understanding the specific conditions that influence whether employees engage in knowledge sharing or knowledge hiding when facing performance pressure. Drawing on conservation of resource theory, we develop a dual-path model to capture the enrichment and depletion effects of employee performance pressure interacting with their perceived supervisor support on knowledge sharing and hiding behaviors. A scenario experiment (Study 1) and a multi-wave survey (Study 2) support the enrichment path, indicating that employee performance pressure facilitates their knowledge sharing behavior when they perceive higher support from their supervisors. In parallel, these two studies also confirm the depletion path, revealing that performance pressure prompts employees to exert knowledge hiding behavior when they perceive lower supervisor support. Our study contributes to deepening our understanding of the complex relationships between employee performance pressure, supervisor support, and knowledge management behaviors by identifying the boundary conditions under which employee performance pressure influences their knowledge sharing and hiding behaviors. These findings also offer valuable insights for organizations and managers on how to promote more effective knowledge flow when their employees face performance pressure.
