Building relational confidence in remote and hybrid work arrangements: novel ways to use digital technologies to foster knowledge sharing

Remote and hybrid workers know fewer of their colleagues and have fewer strong workplace relationships. If strong relationships support knowledge sharing, workers will have a harder time getting knowledge they need. Prior research shows that digital communication technologies increase workers' network-level knowledge of "who knows what" and "who knows who." Yet, knowledge seekers may be hesitant to ask for knowledge, particularly when they have concerns that their relationship with a knowledge source is too distant. We conduct a dyad-level study of 141 instances of knowledge seeking among employees of a South American telecommunications company employing a hybrid work arrangement and using an enterprise social media called Chatter. We find that specific uses of the technology help develop what we call "relational confidence," or the confidence that one has a close enough relationship to a colleague to ask and get needed knowledge. With greater relational confidence, knowledge sharing is more successful. Lay Summary By virtue of making relationships and expertise more visible, enterprise social media (ESM) platforms help increase workers' knowledge of "who knows what" and "who knows who" across their organization. Even so, whether people act on this and actually ask a coworker for the knowledge they need is less clear. Knowing a coworker could be helpful is not the same as knowing a coworker would be helpful. People are in fact less likely to ask for knowledge if they do not feel confident their coworker would be helpful, which hampers productive knowledge sharing and stymies organizational learning. In this article, we find that interacting through an ESM platform just before asking someone for knowledge can help knowledge seekers build "relational confidence" in their coworker. With greater confidence, knowledge seekers are more likely to ask for knowledge and are more satisfied with the knowledge shared with them. The findings demonstrate that ESM can lubricate knowledge sharing in the time before people decide to ask for knowledge by helping them build relational confidence.