Is Trust Assumed When Working in Teams or Does Trust Have to Be Earned Among the Team Members

Is Trust Assumed When Working in Teams or Does Trust Have to be Earned Among the Team Members

Management

June 18, 2008

Is Trust Assumed When Working in Teams or Does Trust Have to be Earned Among the Team Members

Is Trust Assumed When Working in Teams or Does Trust Have to be Earned Among the Team Members

Research shows trust between team members is dynamic. “Trust grows as the relationship between you and your team develops through shared experiences. Creating this relationship is a crucial part of building trust.” (Team Dynamics) Trust is not a civil right or something assumed, trust is something that has to be earned. People trust those we perceive to be trustworthy; the trustee must be perceived as having similar beliefs as us and as being trustworthy. But what does it mean to be “trustworthy”? Caldwell states, “Trustworthiness continues to be confused with trust in the academic literature (Hosmer, 1996; Caldwell and Clapham, 2003), but scholars agree that each person trusts another when the second person is trustworthy (Meyer et al., 1995; Caldwell and Clapham, 2008). So trustworthiness is a personal view we have of another person based on our own personal experiences. “This process incorporates a complex conceptual calculus (Creed and Miles, 1996; Caldwell and Clapham, 2008) that makes intuitive and often unconscious decisions about the often unspoken social contracts that exist between people and organizations (Rousseau, 1995).”

As I stated in my “Team Collaboration” paper, Trust does not need to involve belief in the good

character, vices, or morals of the other party. “Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action,

based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise

unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.”

(Wikipedia 2008)

In analyzing our newly founded relationship we realize that our trust of each other and in some

sort lack of same is mainly based as in the above quote, “based on what a party knows about the

other party.” This lack of knowledge due to the lack of experiences shared dictates much of our

thinking on the subject of trust. When working in teams the individual team member enters the

relation with a preconceived level of trust for their fellow team members. This level will indeed

fluctuate with the new experience shared by team members. The level of trust will increase or

decrease with actions, words, experiences, or lack of these. All will have an affect on the

relationship and thus the trust level between the team members.

In business as in personal relationships trust must be earned. “Trust is widely accepted

as a critical part of interpersonal, organizational, and organization-public relationships (Grunig

and Huang, 1998). It is the cornerstone of successful relationships and can only be built with

time (Davidson