Study on the trust mechanism in communities of practice

An increasing number of scientific contributions have pointed out the key role of communities in the production, circulation and storage of knowledge. One of their key functions is to build trust mechanism among organization members, which in turn enables community members to more effectively manage their organizational knowledge. This work offers an examination of the nature and function of trust in communities of practice, and further develops a theoretical framework aiming at introducing the dimensions of trust mechanism in communities of practice. We hope that these insights will help organizations further their ability to manage their knowledge and lead to improved organizational performance.