Potential Enablers of Knowledge Collaboration in Ego-Centered Networks of Professionals: Transactive Memory, Trust, and Reciprocity

In many knowledge intensive professions, knowledge workers coordinate specialised advice from other knowledge experts to resolve non-routine problems at work. For speedy, reliable, and economic access to the relevant knowledge, modern knowledge workers develop and maintain ties with other knowledge experts. Such personal ties between knowledge workers develop irrespective of the organisational boundaries and formal structures, and are known as ego-centered networks of professionals. Knowledge sharing research has found personal connections between knowledge workers an important means of information and knowledge transfer among professionals. So far, little is known how knowledge workers transform their personal connections into useful knowledge collaboration, and how they manage the risk and complexities involved in interactions in the absence of formal structures and organisational control mechanisms. Prior studies have indicated the use of transactive memory systems in coordinating specialized knowledge to resolve problems collaboratively. Knowledge management researchers have emphasized the role of trust in sharing knowledge through social means. Informal information trading literature highlights the role of reciprocity in knowledge sharing through social means. Building on theories of transactive memory systems, social exchange, and trust; this paper presents a theoretical model to explain how informal knowledge sharing relationships develop and sustain among professionals. The paper argues that transactive memory, trust, and reciprocity delineate informal structures within egocentered networks of professionals to allow them sharing of know-how and expertise with each other.