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The mediating effect of knowledge sharing on the relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness

Faizuniah Pangil (School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia)
Joon Moi Chan (School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 4 February 2014

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Abstract

Purpose

The limited proximal communication between virtual team members can create a lack of trust among members which can significantly reduce the effectiveness of these teams. Hence, this study was conducted to examine the relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness by looking into the mediating effect of knowledge sharing.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a multinational company in Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to individuals working in a virtual environment. The questionnaire required the respondents to answer questions regarding three different types of trust (i.e. personality-based trust, institutional-based trust and cognitive-based trust), their knowledge sharing behavior, and their evaluation of the effectiveness of the virtual teams that they are involved with.

Findings

Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that knowledge sharing and all the three types of trust are significantly related to virtual team effectiveness. However, only personality-based trust and institutional-based trust are significantly related to knowledge sharing, but knowledge sharing only partially mediates the relationship between these two types of trust and team effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications

The population of this study are virtual teams working for an organization, hence the generalizability of the findings to other settings is unknown.

Originality/value

Trust has been founded to be a significant predictor of virtual team effectiveness. However, this paper shows the effect of different types of trust and the role of knowledge sharing in mediating the relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Received 5 September 2013 Revised 9 September 2013 Accepted 10 September 2013

Citation

Pangil, F. and Moi Chan, J. (2014), "The mediating effect of knowledge sharing on the relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 92-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-09-2013-0341

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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