Réseaux sociaux au travail, confiance interpersonnelle et comportement de partage des connaissances

Abstract

Résumé Dans cet article, nous tentons de démontrer que la confiance interpersonnelle joue un rôle de médiation entre les réseaux sociaux et le comportement de partage des connaissances dans les entreprises tunisiennes de haute technologie. Même si l’impact direct des réseaux sociaux sur le partage des connaissances a été traité par les recherches antérieures, nous pensons qu’une telle relation gagnerait à intégrer le rôle de la confiance interpersonnelle comme mécanisme intermédiaire. En conformité avec McAllister (1995), nous nous proposons d’étudier deux formes de confiance interpersonnelle : la confiance cognitive (basée sur les compétences) et la confiance affective (basée sur les échanges socio-émotionnels). Un modèle structurel a permis de tester les hypothèses de recherche. Les résultats de l’enquête soutiennent partiellement nos conjectures théoriques. Ils montrent que seule la qualité des interactions dans un réseau social influence positivement et significativement les deux formes de confiance. Sur un autre plan, seule la confiance affective aurait une influence sur le comportement de partage des connaissances. Enfin, les résultats stipulent que la confiance affective médiatise l’effet de la qualité d’interaction sur le comportement de partage des connaissances. Une discussion est engagée sur la base de ces résultats et les implications de la recherche, sur le plan théorique et managérial, sont présentées.

Social capital, employees' well-being and knowledge sharing: does enterprise social networks use matter? Case of Tunisian knowledge-intensive firms

“…Our results are also consistent with the research of Berraies et al (2020) that emphasized that in Arab culture like Tunisia, trust-based relationships are determinant of KS. On the basis of an empirical research within high-tech firms in Tunisia, Mansour et al (2014) concluded that managers of these firms are characterized by risk aversion and tend to preserve their precious knowledge. In this line, these authors stressed that organizational climate of trust fosters KS in workplace.…”

“…In particular, in the context of KIFs, knowledge workers do prefer work environment characterized by the promotion of autonomy and team-oriented work (Ben Yahia et al , 2019). Social capital can be perceived as a protective factor for employees in Tunisian KIFs who desire to control uncertainty, that may limit their perceived risk and encourage them to share their knowledge (Mansour et al , 2014).…”

“…The challenge for managers is thus to reassure employees regarding the fear of sharing their knowledge and to shape a collaborative context in which employees can donate and collect knowledge to make it accessible within the whole organization. Mansour et al (2014) have noted that Tunisian managers are resistant to share their knowledge due to their fear of uncertainty and risk aversion.…”

Distributed leadership and exploratory and exploitative innovations: mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing and organizational trust

“…Also, the results can be explained by the importance for the Tunisian individuals to control the uncertainty. In this sense, Mansour et al (2014) concluded through an empirical investigation within high-tech Tunisian companies that the Tunisian managers are risk averse and are likely to not share easily their precious knowledge and that it is important to build a trust-based climate within firms to encourage them to share their knowledge (Mansour et al , 2014). Congruent with the Tunisian business environment in which caution is an important value and where managers desire to control uncertainty, an atmosphere of trust within Tunisian firms may encourage individuals to rely on each other’s good intents, motivate them to share their explicit and tacit knowledge without suspicions or fear and engage in cooperative behaviors.…”

“…To foster KS, employees should work in an environment of trust and in the perspective of leading practices through which they perceive that they are encouraged to take initiative to improve the current methods and products and suggest new ways of doing thinks. As noted, Tunisian managers are often reluctant to share their knowledge with others within workplace because of their willingness to control uncertainty and their risk aversion to lose their precious resource (Mansour et al , 2014). Through the understanding of the potential effects of DL and OT on KS, managers of Tunisian KIFs can engage diverse actions to promote KS among knowledge workers.…”