Motives for giving information in non-work contexts and the expectations of reciprocity. The case of environmental activists
β Scribed by Reijo Savolainen
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 81 KB
- Volume
- 44
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0044-7870
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
β¦ Synopsis
Abstract
Information sharing stands for a twoβway activity in which information is given and received in the same context. The present study reviews information sharing from the viewpoint of information giving. The empirical analysis draws on interviews with twenty environmental activists in Finland, 2005. Three major motives for information giving in nonβwork contexts were identified: first, seredipitous altruism to provide help to other people, second, pursuit of the ends of seeking information by proxy, and third, dutyβdriven needs characteristic of persons elected to positions of trust. Since in most cases information giving was driven by altruistic motives, the lack of reciprocity did not in practice weaken the motives for information giving. However, in the case of sensitive information, information giving tends to be restricted by calculations of the risk of information leakage against benefits obtained from the personally rewarding experience of providing important information to others.
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