Abstract: This study systematically investigates the phenomenon of individual knowledge disruption within turbulent environments characterized by rapid technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, and shifting market dynamics. The study's primary innovation lies in its conceptual and empirical examination of knowledge disruption as a perceived threat to the adequacy of one's domain-specific expertise, triggered by external environmental shocks.
The research is structured around three interconnected studies. The first study aims to achieve conceptual clarity by rigorously defining knowledge disruption and distinguishing it from related constructs like knowledge updating, knowledge reconstruction, and knowledge innovation. A key innovation is the proposed differentiation of two distinct dimensions: cross-domain knowledge disruption (complementary challenges from external, non-core knowledge) and within-domain knowledge disruption (substitutive threats from new knowledge within one's core field). Based on the dynamic and boundary characteristics of knowledge management, this study will develop and validate a reliable measurement scale for these dimensions, addressing a significant methodological gap in the literature. The study will employ a combined qualitative and quantitative research methodology. Based on the conceptual framework of knowledge disruption outlined above, it will develop measurement scales for cross-domain knowledge disruption and within-domain knowledge disruption, and validate their reliability.
The second study delves into the formation mechanism of employee knowledge disruption, exploring how environmental dynamism (comprising both technological turbulence and market turbulence) translates into the subjective experience of disruption. The investigation focuses on unveiling the parallel mediating roles of work competency and professional control, thereby revealing the pathways through which external turbulence triggers feelings of knowledge inadequacy. Furthermore, the study examines the cross-level moderating effects of organizational environmental scanning and individual dynamic capabilities, offering a comprehensive framework that incorporates both organizational and individual factors that may attenuate or exacerbate the impact of environmental turbulence on knowledge disruption.
The third study examines the impact mechanism of knowledge disruption. A innovative element is testing a dual-pathway model where the two types of disruption lead to divergent outcomes through different motivational and behavioral processes. It is proposed that cross-domain knowledge disruption may foster innovation performance and work resilience by triggering a knowledge restructuring process. Conversely, within-domain knowledge disruption is hypothesized to hinder these outcomes.
The study further investigates how individual mindset (growth mindset versus fixed mindset) moderates these relationships, particularly examining how growth mindset strengthens the positive path from cross-domain disruption to innovation through knowledge restructuring, while fixed mindset reinforces the negative path from within-domain disruption to performance outcomes.
As for theoretical contributions, this study creatively constructed a series of mechanisms from encountering knowledge disruption to responding to it from the perspective of self-threat. At present, there are very few individual complete mechanism chains regarding knowledge disruption. Therefore, this study, against the backdrop of environmental turbulence, reveals the dynamic process from the cause to the consequence of individual knowledge disruption. Moreover, knowledge serves as the foundation for allocating status and prestige in the professional hierarchy system. Therefore, knowledge disruption implies the possibility of losing social respect or status, that is, facing self-threat. Most existing studies regard individual knowledge as a kind of resource. In this study, knowledge disruption is regarded as a threat to the self-concept. Based on relevant theoretical foundations of self-concept such as threat rigidity theory, the formation mechanism and influence mechanism of knowledge disruption in a turbulent environment are explored. Studying the formation mechanism and the impact mechanism on work results and capabilities in the turbulent environment of knowledge disruption from the perspective of self-threat not only provides a new theoretical perspective for the research in the field of individual knowledge management, but also expands the research content of this field.

Key words: knowledge disruption, environmental dynamism, social self-preservation theory, self-enhancement, self-verification