Composite diversity, social capital, and group knowledge sharing: a case narration

Composite diversity among team members is one of the noteworthy but neglected issues for its contingent effect on knowledge management processes. This paper presents that these often contingent and sometimes bipolar effects of composite diversity occur in their relationship with knowledge sharing, which is one critical element for knowledge management. Nevertheless, we argue that this contingency does not stem from the diversity per se, but from the social-cognitive state (i.e. social capital) that moderates in this diversity-sharing relationship. In addition to the conceptual deductions, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews in a real-life group setting as a preliminary endorsement for our theoretical exploration; this effort serves as a setout in assisting the illustrative conceptual deductions but not an attempt to be one large-scaled empirical piece of testing that should consider the generalizability more seriously. Implications for group practices and group dynamics in knowledge-sharing imperatives are discussed finally.