Small talk and knowledge sharing: a moderated dual-facilitating pathway model based on interpersonal trust and perceived similarity

What is it about?

Drawing on the Interaction Ritual Theory, the current study constructs a dual-facilitating pathway approach which aims to reveal the positive impact of small talk on knowledge sharing. Specifically, this paper argues that small talk will both stimulate interpersonal trust, which is cognition-based trust and affect-based trust respectively, and thus generate positive effects on knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, the moderated mediating results show that perceived similarity among employees will only strengthen the emotional pathway, thereby promoting the positive of small talk on knowledge sharing, and the cognitive pathway will not affect by perceived similarity. Multi-wave data (n = 492), multi-culture data (n=99), and the regression analyses and structural equation model results support the proposed conceptual model. The results not only provide a dyadic perspective to understand knowledge sharing among employees in the workplace, but also enrich the boundary conditions of small talk, interpersonal trust, and knowledge sharing mechanism.

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