| Globalization, increased competition and the availability of Internet technology are creating distributed teams to achieve goals that require multiple disciplines, such as engineering design, and new product development. Cooperation and problem solving in these teams require more trust than in traditional homogeneous, collocated teams, but geographic distribution and cross-functional team composition makes trust difficult to achieve.; Until recently, there was little agreement about the nature of trust and how it develops. The definition of trust that I use is Trust is the willingness to accept a risk based upon the expectation that another party will perform, regardless of your ability to check. Theories propose that inter-personal trust is based upon shared social categories, roles, third party information, social rules, history of the relationship and the trustor's disposition. Although most of these theories have been tested individually, no model combining these theories has yet been tested.; To tackle this problem, I integrated the theories of trust into a model that identifies the major variables that predict inter-personal trust. In the first year, I observed teams at work in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) educational environment and developed ways to measure the variables that predict trust in the model. Over the next two years, I surveyed hundreds of global, cross-functional pairs of coworkers and used the information gained to refine, test and validate the model of inter-personal trust.; I found that many of the expected model relationships were confirmed. Perceived trustworthiness and risk predicted trust. My model extensions were also confirmed. Reward predicted trust and perceived performance predicted perceived trustworthiness. Contrary to our expectations, I also found that perceived performance mediates the relationship between perceived trustworthiness and trust. Particularly in distributed dyads, it appears that participants relied on their perceptions of their team members to evaluate the extent to which these team members met expectations. I also found that distributed team members changed their level of trust less than those who were collocated.; In conclusion, the model of interpersonal trust was validated in the context of cross-functional, distributed student teams. The PBL environment used also provided a realistic representation of a work-related sample. |
