Sharing is caring: The effect of knowledge exchange workshops on community commitment among research software engineers

Kurzfassung

The management of resources is an important aspect of research software development, where resources are limited in terms of financial, infrastructural, and human aspects. Community building can contribute to the exchange of resources by strengthening social networks and the motivation to commit to the community. To evaluate the potential of knowledge exchange workshops as a community building strategy, we conducted an online survey among workshop participants (n = 72) and assessed the psychological sense of community and community commitment in relation to their previous participation. In addition, we collected information regarding two workplace-related aspects: permanent or fixed-term employment and participants’ role as a software engineering representative. Our results showed that the number of workshops, that respondents had participated in, was indeed positively associated with the strength of the sense of community, F(1, 70) = 31.28, p < .001, f = 0.45, and the sense of community, in turn, was positively associated with community commitment, F(1, 61) = 27.99, p < .001, f = 0.46. No significant differences were found between forms of employment and sense of community (t = 0.91, p = .364) or community commitment (t = 1.79, p = .078). We, therefore, conclude that knowledge exchange workshops can be useful in strengthening the sense of community among research software engineers independent of workplace characteristics. While these preliminary findings emphasize the positive outcome of community building workshops on an individual level, future studies should also include outcomes on the project, team, or organization level.