Abstract
The subject of individual and interpersonal trust within communities has captured the attention of sociologists and psychologists for many decades, having intensified with the advent of virtual or online communities and their potential for increasing social inclusion. E-collaboration, particularly for business purposes, often requires the communication of “rich” information (Daft & Lengel, 1986), of high utility value to its recipients, such that it facilitates “rational action” (Ulrich, 2001).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Rationality: A decision or situation is often called rational if it is in some sense optimal, and individuals are often called rational if they tend to act somehow optimally in pursuit of their goals.
Power: The ability to get someone else to do something you want done and to make things happen the way you want them to.
Deconstruction: A method used for discovering, recognizing, and understanding the underlying assumptions, ideas, and frameworks that form the basis for thought and belief.
Community Of Practice: A group of people who share an interest in a domain of human endeavor and engage in a process of collective learning that creates bonds between them: a tribe, a garage band, a group of engineers working on similar problems.
Action Research: A methodology that aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical framework.
Bounded Rationality: The limits faced by individuals in formulating and solving complex problems and in processing (receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting) information.
Business Communities: Patterns of formal and informal linkages between individuals, businesses, and other organizations such as government and voluntary agencies.