Internal boundaries between information systems divisions have traditionally caused friction and frustration, and negatively affected IT staff job satisfaction. Adopting open source development principles and processes within a corporate environment, what has been labeled ‘inner source,’ is now part of a larger management strategy to break down silos and promote innovation, collaboration, cooperation and communication across divisions of an organization. In this article we argue that inner source emphasizes the importance of relationships between developers and teams interacting across intra-organizational boundaries. We posit that inner source helps to create social capital, which in turn links to higher levels of job satisfaction. We use a sequential mixed-methods approach to test a theoretical model by combining quantitative survey data collected at one IT organization with qualitative data based on interviews with professionals from six organizations that adopted inner source. The results suggest that employees who participate in inner source projects develop more social interaction ties with others and have higher levels of shared understanding of software projects. Furthermore, we confirm that social interaction ties and a shared understanding link to a higher degree of trust. Finally, this study provides evidence that social capital mediates the link between participation in inner source and job satisfaction, implying that an inner source strategy can offer benefits to organizations. Enriched with the findings from the qualitative interviews, we then identify a number of implications for managers.

中文翻译：

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采用内部资源会提高工作满意度吗？使用混合方法的社会资本视角


信息系统部门之间的内部界限历来会造成摩擦和挫败感，并对 IT 员工的工作满意度产生负面影响。在企业环境中采用开源开发原则和流程（被称为“内部源”）现在已成为更大管理战略的一部分，旨在打破孤岛并促进组织各部门之间的创新、协作、合作和沟通。在本文中，我们认为内部源强调了跨组织内部边界交互的开发人员和团队之间关系的重要性。我们认为，内部资源有助于创造社会资本，而社会资本又与更高水平的工作满意度相关。我们使用顺序混合方法来测试理论模型，将一个 IT 组织收集的定量调查数据与基于对来自采用内部来源的六个组织的专业人员进行访谈的定性数据相结合。结果表明，参与内部源项目的员工与他人建立了更多的社交互动关系，并对软件项目有更高水平的共同理解。此外，我们确认社交互动纽带和共同理解与更高程度的信任相关。最后，本研究提供的证据表明，社会资本调节了内部资源参与与工作满意度之间的联系，这意味着内部资源策略可以为组织带来好处。根据定性访谈的结果，我们确定了对管理者的一些启示。