TRUST, RECIPROCITY, AND OTHER RELATIONAL NETWORK CHARACTERISTICS AS FACTORS OF ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Résumé
New philosophies of management and economy have shifted the accent from the monetary assets of organizations to the processes that support the longevity of their strategies. The objectivist ideals of efficiency are being replaced by the ideas of constructing relative and/or non-pecuniary values. From this standpoint, knowledge sharing (KS) is not only a factor of organizational performance, but also the core element of organizational and social equilibrium. It embraces a large spectrum of
phenomena that even go beyond habitual explanatory frameworks. Such an advance is due to several changes in scientific thinking : first, considering organizations as living entities has split up the “power – knowledge” equation into two separate dimensions ; second, searching for the properties of KS units has moved beyond personality or knowledge characteristics and, thus, further than previous attempts to build up KS causality.
The economic and cognitive paradigms dominate a considerable part of organizational studies. The former is a kind of “input – output” black box, which says nothing about its mechanisms. The latter focuses on individual determinants, such as individual incentive structures and/or perception of risks and benefits of KS. Some consider the social exchange paradigm as an alternative solution. Even though it overcomes the limitation of one-factor theories and embraces personal and situational aspects of KS, its reward-deterministic bias does not go beyond interpersonal interactions either. Therefore, it limits organization to the sum of individual behaviors instead of defining it as a new social outcome. If we need to build up such KS causality that takes into consideration the social nature of both knowledge and organization, it would be based on the interplay between social identity and social network paradigms.
The social identity paradigm is neither a new nor a sophisticated concept, but has one very valuable quality. It renounces applying individual psychological characteristics to organizational behavior and, instead, endows individuals with characteristics of the social entity they belong to. Therefore, it allows us to examine social entities via their own characteristics. From this perspective, the quality of KS depends on the extent to which employees identify themselves with either a whole organization or an organizational unit. The self-categorisation process immediately results in social membership. Subsequently, it entails the definition of boundaries of social entities and, thus, produces a number of in-group phenomena, such as positive attitudes and trust toward the in-group, non-critical acceptance of group decisions together with out-group hostility and distrust. Therefore, organizational KS depends on such in-group characteristics as membership and trust.
Social network analysis [SNA] paradigm also examines differentialist backgrounds of social behavior. The uniqueness of this approach is in the move towards greater flexibility such that organizational boundaries become symbolic and/or removable/extendible. SNA explains how the structure and
modality of social ties affect the “path” of KS. Social network helps to specify dysfunctions, barriers and entrepreneurs of KS and provides the strength of ties beneficial for a certain knowledge type . Relational scope of network that affects the quality of KS refers to the idea of closure across structural holes. Trust, reciprocity and reputation are the elements that help build cohesive areas around the knowledge gaps and, thus, foster KS. Even though, due to its origin, SNA primarily focuses on the structural characteristics of network and less on the relational ones, together with the social identity paradigm, it offers great opportunities in understanding factors of KS.
Domaines
Psychologie et comportements
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Burakova-Lorgnier 2008 Trust & network & KS Mngmt&Réseaux.pdf (338.4 Ko)
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