The impact of interpersonal trust and power on the attributes of knowledge acquisition: What is their predictive power?

Abstract

Little is known on the combined effect of interpersonal trust and power factors on the traits and skills of knowledge acquisition. A survey of 140 first line managers was conducted to investigate the relationship between power, interpersonal trust and knowledge acquisition. The results showed that the interpersonal trust measures were not predictive of knowledge acquisition attributes compared to those of the power dimensions. It was also found that the dimensions of power provided statistically significant additional predictive power, after having statistically controlled for the predictive effects of interpersonaltrust.