Trust and knowledge sharing in a transdisciplinary community of practice: a convergent parallel case study

Abstract

The transdisciplinary Communities of Practice (COPs) bring together members with different views and theoretical backgrounds. These are contexts with great potential for creating knowledge building on different human perspectives about reality. However, this transdisciplinary character also poses a challenge for developing the community itself and, more specifically, for its participation and collaboration mechanisms. For this reason, the study of the intervening factors in these processes is crucial within this kind of communities. This research analyses the influence of trust in knowledge-sharing within a technological-educational COP emerged within a research group at a Spanish university. The study used a mixed model parallel convergent design. The results suggest that trust was built on the benevolence, integrity, and competence of the COP members, influencing the knowledge sharing in this transdisciplinary COP positively. The findings also show that personal relationships and satisfaction with past experiences are essential to keep trust between members, which is critical for upcoming exchanges of knowledge. The convergence of qualitative and quantitative data has proven to be an excellent approach to improve our understanding of complex and multidisciplinary phenomena and contexts.