Antecedents of individuals’ participation in the community of practice

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the impact of outcome expectations on individuals’ participation in the community of practice. It examines the impact of expected association, expected contribution and expected support on individuals’ participation in community of practice. Data collected through questionnaire from 216 participants working in healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia to test the research hypotheses. The results of this study indicate that expected association and expected support have significant positive impact on individuals’ participation in community of practice. Whereas, expect contribution found to have a negative impact on individuals’ participation in community of practice. This research offer empirical evidence on the impact of individual factors such as outcome expectations on the involvement of individuals in the community of practice in their organizations. Moreover, the results shed new light on the impact of the contextual factors that may diminish the impact of outcome expectations factors such as job localization.