Knowledge sharing’s dual impact: participation and communication as resistance resources

The COVID-19 pandemic forced physicians to continuously exchange rapidly evolving clinical evidence under acute resource scarcity. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and Job Demands Resources (JD-R) insights, this study examines how knowledge sharing shapes physicians’ job demands as a dual process: depleting individual resources while activating new resource gains. A double mediation model was tested using cross-sectional survey data from 499 Spanish hospital physicians during the 2021 peak wave, analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis and bootstrapped mediation (PROCESS, 5,000 resamples). Results show knowledge sharing amplifies job demands but also fosters communication quality, which sequentially enhances participative decision making, mitigating those demands. We identify communication and participation as sequentially activated resistance resources that interrupt resource loss spirals, a mechanism we term “resistance caravans.” These findings extend COR theory through empirical evidence of sequential resource buffering and offer practitioners a design principle coupling participative governance with structured knowledge sharing protocols.