Building bridges between professionals – expectations and outcomes of participation in professional communities

Abstract

This study illustrates the individual motivations and outcomes of professional community participation. The data for the study were collected using an online questionnaire, which was distributed among highly educated commercial professionals in various business areas. The questionnaire was composed of questions mapping attitudes and behaviors in professional communities. These data were analyzed using factor analysis and cluster analysis in order to define the underlying dimensions of professional communality and to form a typology of participants attending communal events and contributing to the knowledge of these communities.On the basis of factor analysis of the data, 11 factors influencing community participation emerged. These were: identification, employer's attitude, social interaction ties, trust, altruism, knowledge power, time and effort, reciprocity, brand image versus identity, reputation and status, and knowledge self-efficacy. Furthermore, when applying cluster analysis to the data, four different participation profiles could be extracted based on these factors. These were named communal altruists, information brokers, strongly committed professionals, and social capital hoarders. These groups differ significantly due to their expectations of outcomes as well as their behaviors within professional communities.