| The purpose of this study was to conduct a cross-cultural investigation of the concept of trustworthiness. This research followed a dominant-less dominant mixed method design with the quantitative component being the dominant method. Six national cultures were compared on the criteria they use to judge a co-worker's trustworthiness, and on their propensity to trust others. The six participating national cultures were Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The analysis was based on 606 questionnaires received from managers attending management education or leadership development programs at business schools in Europe and in Asia. Follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 14 questionnaire respondents who had volunteered to be interviewed. The purpose of the interviews was to determine if the questionnaire had left out any potentially important dimensions of trustworthiness, beyond those measured by the questionnaire, i.e. Ability, Benevolence, Integrity and Cultural Similarity. All data were analyzed at the levels of national culture, and the ethnicity of the respondents, i.e., Scandinavian, Chinese and Thai.;The quantitative findings revealed statistically significant differences between cultures on the importance they place on Ability, Benevolence, Integrity and Cultural Similarity as criteria for judging the trustworthiness of their co-workers. The qualitative findings from the follow-up telephone interviews confirmed the importance of these four dimensions in the judgment of trustworthiness, but also identified additional dimensions of trustworthiness that were not measured by the questionnaire. This research has contributed to the literature on trust by providing new empirical data on the cultural differences and similarities in judgments of a co-worker's trustworthiness, and their general propensity to trust others. Implications of the findings for managing and leading in multicultural organizations are identified and discussed. |
