a happy sunny Sunday to you researchers!

my question today is about hoarding -- in particular the hoarding of
information in the workplace.  I think everyone has known someone who
engages in this type of office politics; this, despite a study at
Emory University saying we're hard-wired to cooperate,  still we have
our backstabbers and information hoarders.

in a study for Business 2.0, Thomas Steward calls this behavior a
'proxy for selfishness,' so why the dichotomy -- we're selfish, yet
hardwired to cooperate?

could you link me to some articles that argue for self-protection and
that by protecting the information that you 'own,' you increase your
value and job security within an organization and how this is a good
thing.   I'm really trying to see this behavior outside my own
experience.

I'm sure there are scads of articles on reciprocal altruism and
teambuilding, but I'm curious about information hoarders, the cost to
employers as a result of this behavior, and creative ways to deal with
employees who hoard and create information bottlenecks.   I'm aware of
the selfishness gene, so no need to include that information in your
query, unless it's cogent to an office politics situation.

**PLEASE,** do **NOT** spend time summarizing these articles.  I'd
rather that you spend your time finding as many articles as possible
and just include their links.

here's a bit on the Emory study:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,53945,00.html

and a bit on reciprocal altruism:
http://destinationkm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=978

I'll be around if anything needs clarification.  feel free to run
anything by me that's not clear before proceeding.  I'll get right
back to you ASAP.

thanks!
GB