TY - JOUR
T1 - Fostering trust in virtual project teams
T2 - Towards a design framework grounded in a TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema
AU - Rusman, Ellen
AU - Van Bruggen, Jan
AU - Sloep, Peter
AU - Koper, Rob
N1 - DS_Description: Rusman, E., Van Bruggen, J., Sloep, P., Koper, R. (2010). Fostering trust in virtual project teams: Towards a design framework grounded in a TrustWorthiness Antecedents (TWAN) schema. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(11), 834-850. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.07.003
DS_Sponsorship:We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the COOPER Project, that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority 2 IST. Contract no.: 027073 (www.cooper-project.org) and which has part-funded this work. We would also like to thank Lynne Markus, who provided valuable feedback which helped us to improve this article.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Several collaboration problems in virtual project teams that work in knowledge-intensive contexts can be attributed to a hampered process of interpersonal trust formation. Solutions to trust formation problems need to be based on an understanding of how interpersonal trust forms in face-to-face project teams as well as on insight into how this process differs in virtual teams. Synthesizing literature from various disciplines, we propose a model for the formation of interpersonal trust between project team members. Taking this model as a starting point, we analyse how virtual settings may alter or even obstruct the process of trust formation. One method to improve the formation of interpersonal trust in virtual settings is to facilitate the assessment of trustworthiness. This can be done by making information available about individual virtual project team members. Previous research in virtual project teams focussed principally on the medium by which information is spread, for example, by phone, mail, or videoconferencing. Most researchers failed to take the specific content of the information into account, although there is general agreement that personal, non-task-related information is important to foster trust. For this, we propose to use the antecedents of trustworthiness, which until now have mainly been used as a framework to measure trust, as a design framework instead. This framework of antecedents can also be used to determine which type of information is relevant to assess each other’s trustworthiness. We review existing literature on the antecedents of trustworthiness and extend the well-accepted antecedents of ‘ability’, ‘benevolence’ and ‘integrity’ with several other antecedents, such as ‘communality’ and ‘accountability’. Together, these form the TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema. We describe how these antecedents can be used to determine which information is relevant for team members assessing others’ trustworthiness. In future research we will first verify this extended cognitive schema of trustworthiness (TWAN) empirically and then apply it to the design of artefacts or guidelines, such as a personal identity profile to support the assessment of trustworthiness in virtual project teams.
AB - Several collaboration problems in virtual project teams that work in knowledge-intensive contexts can be attributed to a hampered process of interpersonal trust formation. Solutions to trust formation problems need to be based on an understanding of how interpersonal trust forms in face-to-face project teams as well as on insight into how this process differs in virtual teams. Synthesizing literature from various disciplines, we propose a model for the formation of interpersonal trust between project team members. Taking this model as a starting point, we analyse how virtual settings may alter or even obstruct the process of trust formation. One method to improve the formation of interpersonal trust in virtual settings is to facilitate the assessment of trustworthiness. This can be done by making information available about individual virtual project team members. Previous research in virtual project teams focussed principally on the medium by which information is spread, for example, by phone, mail, or videoconferencing. Most researchers failed to take the specific content of the information into account, although there is general agreement that personal, non-task-related information is important to foster trust. For this, we propose to use the antecedents of trustworthiness, which until now have mainly been used as a framework to measure trust, as a design framework instead. This framework of antecedents can also be used to determine which type of information is relevant to assess each other’s trustworthiness. We review existing literature on the antecedents of trustworthiness and extend the well-accepted antecedents of ‘ability’, ‘benevolence’ and ‘integrity’ with several other antecedents, such as ‘communality’ and ‘accountability’. Together, these form the TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema. We describe how these antecedents can be used to determine which information is relevant for team members assessing others’ trustworthiness. In future research we will first verify this extended cognitive schema of trustworthiness (TWAN) empirically and then apply it to the design of artefacts or guidelines, such as a personal identity profile to support the assessment of trustworthiness in virtual project teams.
KW - trust
KW - trustworthiness
KW - artefact design
KW - virtual team
KW - collaboration
KW - impression formation
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.07.003
M3 - Article
VL - 68
SP - 834
EP - 850
JO - International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
JF - International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
SN - 1071-5819
IS - 11
ER -