Organisational Trust and Tacit Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

This research has investigated the effect of the dimensions of organisational trust (OT) on the tacit knowledge transfer (TKT) by the willingness to share (W2S) and the willingness to use (W2U) the tacit knowledge (TK) of public library employees. In terms of nature, the present study is an applied research that, using a descriptive-correlation method. The study sample includes 140 employees of public libraries in Chaharmahal Bakhtiari province, the OT questionnaire Nguyen (2005) and the tacit knowledge sharing (KS) questionnaire Saparito(2000) were used. As well as descriptive statistics, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and regression test were used to analyse the data. There is a positive and significant relationship between calculus-based trust(CBT) and employees’ willingness to TKT. There is a positive and significant relationship between knowledge-based trust (KBT) and employees’ W2S and apply TKT. There is a positive and significant correlation between identity-based trust (IBT) and employees’ W2S and apply TK. The relationship between IBT and the desire to KS is stronger than the relationship between CBT and KBT. Therefore, IBT has a stronger effect than KBT and CBT on the tendency to KS. Employees in the IBT stage are more inclined to share and use TK than employees in the CBT and KBT stage. The TKT is an interactive process formed by the trust between the parties. The results of the current study show that OT has a positive and significant effect on the TKT of public library staff.