Interpersonal trust and willingness to share knowledge among architects: a two-stage triangulation research

Architectural design is a knowledge-intensive activity. It demands both explicit and tacit knowledge. However, architects are not always willing to share their knowledge with others. What factors, therefore, would encourage architects’ knowledge-sharing behavior? In knowledge management literature, trust is considered as an important factor influencing the knowledge sharing behavior. Given the interest of researchers and practitioners in trust and knowledge sharing in teams, current research aims to expand the understanding of factors that influence trust and the mechanisms through which integrate willingness to share knowledge with a more general theoretical framework. The whole research is divided into two stages: an exploratory study and an explanatory study. In the exploratory study, in-depth interviews and Full Grid Technique are applied to collect data. A triangulation method i.e., a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is employed to analyze the interview data. Factors influencing trust and willingness to share knowledge are identified, and research hypotheses are formulated at the end of exploratory study. The research hypotheses are then tested with structural equation modeling in the second stage i.e., an explanatory study based on a survey. The survey subjects are architects in A-level architectural design institutes in three most well-developed cities of People’s Republic of China i.e. Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao. The results suggest that attitude on work and social interaction between architects in a design team can significantly influence interpersonal trust between team members. Furthermore, social interactions also can significantly influence architect’s willingness to share knowledge. Trust plays a mediating role between architects’ social interaction and their willingness to share knowledge. Moreover, the mediating role of attitude toward knowledge sharing and subjective norms are supported under the framework of theory of reasoned action. In addition, two different epistemological theory frameworks i.e. personal construct theory and theory of reasoned action are integrated in this research. To summarize, the research contributes at three different levels: 1) Measurement level: a new way of developing semantic differential scales is identified; 2) Model level: new models such as mediating model are tested and established; 3) Theory level: two theories of different epistemological paradigms are integrated to fill the cognition-behavior gap.