Trust In Situations Research Articles

Generalizing Kant's Distinction between Perfect and Imperfect Duties to Trust in Different Situations

ABSTRACT Based on previous research that violations of perfect duties cause stronger correspondent inferences than violations of imperfect ones, the authors performed four experiments to generalize this effect to trust. In Experiment 1, abstract violations of perfect duties resulted in less trust than violations of imperfect ones for specific trust scenarios. In Experiments 2 and 3, the authors experimented with different levels of abstractness of the duty violations and obtained similar effects. Experiment 4 was concerned with generalizing further—from duty violations in one situation to trust in a different situation. Although mostly consistent with the findings from Experiments 1–3, the data also demonstrated partial generalization for violations of both perfect and imperfect duties.

From pattern to practice: Evaluation of a design pattern fostering trust in virtual teams

This article describes the implementation and evaluation of a design pattern that fosters trust in mediated collaborative settings. The pattern proposed here should provide a profile with static and/or dynamic information about the participants of a collaborative environment. It aims to foster initial (in the first two to three weeks) trust in situations in which people do not know each other and do not have a chance to meet, but need to collaborate. A simple and low cost implementation of this pattern was realized by conducting a case study with participants of the European Virtual Seminar on Sustainable Development (EVS). They were asked to fill in a template with personal information about themselves. In the EVS, students collaboratively have to address sustainable development problems. Afterwards, students were questioned on the use of this template, called PEXPI, and their impressions of each other during and after the EVS; questionnaires and a semi-structured interview were used. The results show that the implementation of the static profile, derived from the pattern, initially helped students to form an impression of each other. After this initial period, however, students base their impression on factors such as the quality of work-related contributions, behaviour during collaboration (e.g. responsiveness), and communication style. This case study also shows that the pattern could easily be applied and transferred to a new context, as long as the conditions described in the ‘context’-section of the pattern, were met. The case study provided a means for evaluation of the pattern and a source for its refinement.

The light side and the dark side of inter-firm collaboration: How to govern distrust in business networks

In front of globalization, hypercompetition and turbulence (D’Aveni, 1994, 1995), it’s more and more frequent to see inter-firms relationships increase exponentially: alliances, partnerships, social groups, clans. Networks are becoming a prevailing organizational form in the21st century (Cravens, Piercy, 1994). The unit of analysis, in this article, is the strategic systems and more precisely the strategic network that develops within a territory (business districts, destinations) or a virtual set and that is even denser and more complex than ordinary networks: local resources can be relevant for the whole aggregate and relations are also physically or virtually particularly closed. Strategic networks and inter-firm collaborations have often been analysed with respect to their main success factors. Less attention has been paid to the more obscure and less satisfying aspects that someway explain why, in some cases, they fail or at least do not take off. Even theoretical frameworks usually adopted as Resource-Based Theory (Rumelt, 1982; Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991, 2007) Transaction Cost Economics (Williamson, 1975, 1981) and Social Network Theory (Granovetter, 1973, 1982; Lieberskind et al., 1996, Wasserman, Faust, 1999) are used according to a positive approach, aimed at finding and analyzing mainly successful initiatives. The aim of this article is to analyse, in particular, situations of distrust, that can either continue pushing firms not to cooperate or rather evolve towards more trustful situations and therefore with more chances of really developing business networks. A specific model is proposed, to manage distrust and to evolve towards trustful situations. The process, however, requires a specific intervention of a network governance actor, that can stimulate it. This actor must have distinctive capabilities and competences to manage the process. The proposed model is developed with the help of Game Theory (Fudemberg, Tyrole, 1991; Gibbons, 1992; Myerson, 2002, 2006) and can be applied empirically to verify what prevents actors from cooperating and how the governance actor can lead the process towards trust situations. Game theory is also used to study the possible level of coopetition (Brandenbruger, Nalebuff, 1996), that is the collaboration that can be put forward among competitors. Firms involved in these processes vary their own approaches both in terms of realizing the opportunities brought about by collaboration and of assuming a positive vs opportunistic behaviour. But the latter often prevails….The results offered by the model will also have some managerial implications since they should be able to give useful hints to decision makers on how to govern distrust. The model will be tested empirically on a sample of firms operating in tourism sector in Southern Italy, involved in local networks. In tourism industry, cooperation between players operating in the same destination is something needed to compete against global destinations. It will be then applied to other industries characterized by small and medium enterprises that have invested in the same area/district, with a high potential for collaboration.

P02-190 Patients satisfaction within community mental health centres

Introduction:By the and of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina process of psychiatric care reform has started by implementation of community mental health care concept. This way of mental health care organization is based on community mental health centres.Aim:Aim of this article is to assess the level of patients satisfaction with community mental health care provided within community mental health centers.Method:Research was conducted in three towns (Sarajevo, Zenica and Banja Luka) in Bosnia and Herzegovina in which the best possibilities for implementation of new organizational concept of care are existing. As research instrument adapted version of Patient satisfaction questionnaire within outpatient community mental health care was applied randomly with community mental health centers users.Results:In all targeted areas users of care expressed with high score their satisfaction with mental health professionals understanding for their situation and high level of trust toward mental health professionals. They were satisfied with time they spent with person who treat them, as well as with frequency of contacts with them, efficiency of therapy and efficiency of treatment in general. The level of satisfaction with the information regarding the treatment was optimal, but the lowest score for these items were registered in town Zenica.Conclusion:Results of the study, according to the level of patients satisfaction with services provided within community mental health centers, as a measure of their quality, indicates that focused community mental health centers provide services of good quality. It is neccessary to improve patients information regarding mental health disorder they are suffering from, as well as about treatment possibilities.

Imitation and Learning under Uncertainty

Trust is important in organizations, e.g. in teams or small working groups in which the performance of team members depends on the performance of other members in the group and in which team members have only an incentive to perform well if they trust that others perform as well. Existing theories regarding effects of communication on trust problems stress the influence of information about behaviour of potential partners. Effects of imitation are less extensively elaborated in the literature. In this article, the authors develop a theory about imitation in combination with other network effects on trust. They propose a distinction between imitation and other types of learning, contrasting trustors who only know that other trustors have been trustful in transactions with a trustee with trustors who also know that this trustee was in fact trustworthy. The theory predicts that both imitation and learning have an effect in trust situations and that these effects depend on uncertainties for the trustor. The authors designed a vignette experiment that enables the distinction between imitation and learning for different levels of uncertainty. The experiment provides strong support for learning effects on trust and some support for imitation effects. There is only limited evidence that the imitation effects depend on uncertainty.

Trust Relations in High‐Reliability Organizations

Workplace trust has been recognized by researchers and practitioners alike to be an important component of an effective safety culture. However, despite this, the concept of trust as it relates to safety has been underresearched, particularly within high-reliability organizations. This article examines the importance of trust relations and their concomitant impact on safety culture within the specific context of high-reliability organizations using relevant literatures. The article then explores the implications of high and low trust situations for safety through case studies conducted within the nuclear and offshore industries as exemplars of organizations operating within high-reliability sectors.

Client–project manager engagements, trust, and loyalty

AbstractThis study addresses the behaviors of project managers under various conditions of cognitive and affective trust, and the implications for obtaining client loyalty. Theoretical foundations were drawn from interpersonal and interorganizational trust literature. A test of the proposed theoretical framework was conducted in a field setting utilizing a matched design of both project managers and their clients. The results show that reliable project performance positively impacted client loyalty intentions and service‐oriented OCBs positively impacted client secondary retention. An interaction showed that in low cognitive trust situations the project manager behavior of reliable project performance facilitated the obtainment of client loyalty intentions. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Trust and Power as Determinants of Conflict Resolution Strategy and Outcome Satisfaction.

Relationships provide the context for conflict resolution. Rubin and Brown (1975) hypothesized that equal power and high trust situations would induce participants to choose more cooperative strategies and to attain more satisfactory outcomes than low trust or unequal power situations. Gaylard (1994) postulated that personal and situational variables could have both direct and indirect effects on conflict outcomes. This study was designed to test these hypotheses, with 40 pairs of management students participating in a negotiation simulation. Results supported Rubin and Brown's hypotheses. A path analysis indicated the beneficial effect of trust was indirect and could be accounted for by greater use of the integrating strategy. The effect of the power differential was direct and not based on an increased use of a particular conflict resolution strategy. These results suggest that enhanced trust might be considered one marker of success of conflict resolution training in a particular social context, such a...

The researcher's dilemma: evaluating trust in computer-mediated communication

The aim of this paper is to establish a methodological foundation for human–computer interaction (HCI) researchers aiming to assess trust between people interacting via computer-mediated communication (CMC) technology. The most popular experimental paradigm currently employed by HCI researchers are social dilemma games based on the Prisoner’ s Dilemma (PD), a technique originating from economics. HCI researchers employing this experimental paradigm currently interpret the rate of cooperation—measured in the form of collective pay-off—as the level of trust the technology allows its users to develop. We argue that this interpretation is problematic, since the game's synchronous nature models only very specific trust situations. Furthermore, experiments that are based on PD games cannot model the complexity of how trust is formed in the real world, since they neglect factors such as ability and benevolence. In conclusion, we recommend (a) means of improving social dilemma experiments by using asynchronous Trust Games, (b) collecting a broader range of data (in particular qualitative) and (c) increased use of longitudinal studies.

Nurturing Collaborative Relations

Many organizations aspire to gain collaborative advantage by working in partnerships across organizational, sectoral, and even national boundaries. Such collaborations, however, are difficult to manage, and the likelihood of disappointing outputs is high. To create advantage, practitioners need to engage in a continuous process of nurturing the collaborative processes. One issue that appears significant in the nurturing process is trust. This article incorporates a synthesis of research on trust with research on other aspects of collaboration. It develops a trust-building loop and examines its validity to inform practice. It argues that trust building is problematic and that management of trust implies both the ability to cope in situations where trust is lacking and the ability to build trust in situations where this is possible. It summarizes pragmatic implications in a tool for thinking about and addressing trust management in different collaborative situations.

Mafia und Mafiakapitalismus als totales soziales Phänomen

The article shows that Mafia in Sicily has turned from an “archaic social movement” into an overarching “structure”, that influences all spheres of social life. It further shows that some kind of Mafia-capitalism of the Italian type is to be found in Russia too. The main thesis is that Mafia is not to be understood as a “violent entrepreneurship” only but as a “total social phenomenon” in the sense of Marcel Mauss. That means that the evolution of Mafia-type networks are the result of state failure and state destruction. Mafia generates and mediates trust in situations of generalized distrust. In other words, Mafia has turned from an archaic social movement into a new mechanism of social integration, which is to be found not only in South-Italy but in several modern societies.

On the Emotional Character of Trust

Trustful interaction serves the interests of those involved. Thus, one could reason that trust itself may be analyzed as part of rational, goal‐oriented action. In contrast, common sense tells us that trust is an emotion and is, therefore, independent of rational deliberation to some extent. I will argue that we are right in “trusting” our common sense. My argument is conceptual in nature, referring to the common distinction between trust and pure reliance. An emotional attitude may be understood as some general pattern in the way the world or some part of the world is perceived by an individual. Trust may be characterized by such a pattern. I shall focus on two central features of a trusting attitude. First, trust involves a participant attitude (Strawson) toward the person being trusted. Second, a situation of trust is perceived by a trusting person as one in which shared values or norms motivate both his own actions as well as those of the person being trusted. As an emotional attitude, trust is, to some extent, independent of objective information. It determines what a trusting person will believe and how various outcomes are evaluated. Hence, trust is quite different from rational belief and the problem with trust is not adequately met in minimizing risk by supplying extensive information or some mechanism of sanctioning. Trust is an attitude that enables us to cope with risk in a certain way. If we want to promote trustful interaction, we must form our institutions in ways that allow individuals to experience their interest and values as shared and, thus, to develop a trusting attitude.

AN EXPERIMENT ON THE EFFECTS OF EMBEDDEDNESS IN TRUST SITUATIONS

This article describes a vignette experiment on the effects of temporal embeddedness and network embeddedness in trust situations. The experiment uses a setting in which a buyer wants to buy a used car from a car dealer. We distinguish between effects on trust of the past relation and the effects of the expected future relation between the buyer and the dealer. A buyer can learn about the trustworthiness of the dealer from past transactions of the dealer. Moreover, the buyer can control the dealer if the buyer and the dealer expect more transactions in the future, because the buyer may sanction the dealer if the dealer would act untrustworthy in the present transaction, for example, by refraining from future transactions. Temporal embeddedness facilitates learning and control through the bilateral relation of the buyer and the dealer, while network embeddedness facilitates learning and control through third parties. In the experiment, subjects are asked to compare different settings for buying a used car, while the relation between the buyer and dealer is varied in these settings. We conclude that both learning and control affect trust at the level of the dyad (temporal embeddedness) as well as at the group-level (network embeddedness).

TRUST AND THE RELIABILITY OF EXPECTATIONS

This paper discusses both `parametric trust situations' and `strategic trust situations' with expectation-based strategies and (limited) forecasting ability of the trustor, which is a way of modeling some basic ideas of `bounded rationality' from a rational-choice perspective. The analysis concentrates on one-shot, `non-embedded' situations. This is not to deny the importance of iteration and embeddedness. However, both for theoretical and practical reasons this `limiting' case deserves special attention. The analysis demonstrates how actors with less than perfect forecasting ability may be able to overcome the inherent dilemma of a trust relation. In the short run, an actor may decide to raise his forecasting ability by increased but costly attention, but in the medium run it can only be improved by learning processes.

Moral Hazards on the Road to the “Virtual” Corporation

Abstract:In recent years, two topics have made prominent debuts in the management literature—“virtual” corporations and trust within and among organizations. These two themes are related in that trust is important to the success of the virtual corporation. This article argues that confidence in the development of virtual corporations may be premature because of what we call the Virtual Corporation Paradox. This paradox can be succinctly stated: the short-term, transient deal-making on which the efficiency of the virtual corporation rests greatly impedes the development of the mutually trusting and cooperative relationships on which its success depends. We examine both economic and sociological explanations for the emergence of trust in similar situations and find both deficient. We conclude that the success of virtual corporations will ultimately depend on an ethics-based form of corporate “character” that allows firms to develop trusting relationships without the usual safeguards or social norms.

Moral Hazards on the Road to the “Virtual” Corporation

In recent years, two topics have made prominent debuts in the management literature—“virtual” corporations and trust within and among organizations. These two themes are related in that trust is important to the success of the virtual corporation. This article argues that confidence in the development of virtual corporations may be premature because of what we call the Virtual Corporation Paradox. This paradox can be succinctly stated: the short-term, transient deal-making on which the efficiency of the virtual corporation rests greatly impedes the development of the mutually trusting and cooperative relationships on which its success depends. We examine both economic and sociological explanations for the emergence of trust in similar situations and find both deficient. We conclude that the success of virtual corporations will ultimately depend on an ethics-based form of corporate “character” that allows firms to develop trusting relationships without the usual safeguards or social norms.

Trust as Noncognitive Security about Motives

Examinant les approches cognitive et non-cognitive de la confiance dans le domaine de la theorie politique contemporaine, l'A. souligne la pertinence de la seconde pour le gouvernement, ainsi que l'importance d'un sens de la securite concernant la bienveillance, le caractere consciencieux et la reciprocite des acteurs politiques dans la vie publique moderne

Moral Hazards on the Road to the "Virtual" Corporation

In recent years, two topics have made prominent debuts in the management literature—“virtual” corporations and trust within and among organizations. These two themes are related in that trust is important to the success of the virtual corporation. This article argues that confidence in the development of virtual corporations may be premature because of what we call the Virtual Corporation Paradox. This paradox can be succinctly stated: the short-term, transient deal-making on which the efficiency of the virtual corporation rests greatly impedes the development of the mutually trusting and cooperative relationships on which its success depends. We examine both economic and sociological explanations for the emergence of trust in similar situations and find both deficient. We conclude that the success of virtual corporations will ultimately depend on an ethics-based form of corporate “character” that allows firms to develop trusting relationships without the usual safeguards or social norms.

Preschoolers' understanding of characteristics of their friends' behavior: prediction of friends' behavior and behavioral intention toward friends

These studies examined preschoolers' understanding of characteristics of friends. "Friends" were defined as children of the same sex who chose each other as good friends, and "acquaintances" were those who knew each other but did not mutually chosen. In Study 1, 30 five- to six-year-old children were asked how they expected their friends and acquaintances to behave toward them in various situations, such as play, help, and trust situations. It was found that they tended to expect their friends in play and trust situations to behave more kindly than their acquaintances. In Study 2, they were asked how they themselves would behave toward their friends and acquaintances in the same situations. They replied that they would behave more kindly toward their friends than toward their acquaintances in all the situations. These results were interpreted as preschoolers showing a consistent understanding of their friends' behavior, as well as a clear comprehension of reciprocity in their relationship with their friends.

Attributing information to different sources: effects on the perceived qualities of information, on the perceived relevance of information, and on attitude formation

What is salient in risk communication, and what is believed, is likely to be related to factors additional to the informational content itself. The social context or derivation of the information are important determinants of receiver reactions, particularly where the potential hazard is characterized as unknown, or where the knowledge base surrounding the potential hazard is perceived to be at the level of society rather than of individual members of the general public (for example, genetic engineering). Experimental data are presented which examine the effect of information source on perceptions of qualities of the information (particularly trust in what is being communicated) and subsequent attitudes towards genetic engineering within the context of food safety. It was found that selfreported trust in hypothetical situations may not equate with behavioural responses to actual information when attributed to a particular source. Source attribution as opposed to anonymity was the most important determinant of perceived informational quality. Public reaction to risk information is likely to be determined by a complex inter-relationship between source and hazard characteristics.