Download RD300 trust

The Concept of Trust
RD300
24 September 2001
What is trust?
"...trust is a term with many
meanings." (Williamson, 1993, p.453)
"Trust is itself a term for a clustering of
perceptions." (White, 1992, p.174)
Disciplinary views of trust
Personality theorists:
(A) a generalized expectancy that the word,
promise, or verbal or written statement of
another is reliable.
(B) a faith in humanity.
(C) trust as a core personality characteristic.
(D) influence of (early) life events that affect
an individual’s predisposition to trust.
Sociologists and Economists
•Focus on trust as an institutional phenomenon.
•Trust is the “perception that those in authority
are not biased against one, that the working of
the system does not result in special costs for
oneself and one’s group” (Flacks, 1969, p.132).
•Relationship between trust and fairness.
Social Psychologists
•Focus on the transactions between
individuals that create or destroy trust.
•Trust - an expectation of the party(ies) in a
transaction that they will behave in a certain
way.
Trust & Relationships
 Trust is a dynamic phenomenon. It evolves and
changes.
 Different types of trust at different stages of a
relationship.
 Lewicki and Bunker (1995) identified 3 types or
stages of trust in relationships:
Calculus-based trust
Knowledge-based trust
Identification-based trust
Calculus-based Trust
 Trust founded on consistency and
behavior control through deterrence.
 “Deterrence-based trust exists when the
potential costs of discontinuing the
relationship or the likelihood of
retributive action outweigh the shortterm advantage of acting in a distrustful
way” (Shapiro et al, 1992, p.366).
 Personal reputation as hostage.
 Future relationships with the same parties.
 Calculus of a cost-benefit analysis.
 There must be penalties for violating trust.
Fragility of Trust
 Calculus-based trust (CBT) is very
fragile and easily destroyed.
 In CBT relationships the parties are
careful about the degree of risk
(vulnerability) and build in safeguards
to protect themselves.
Knowledge-based Trust
 Relies on information rather than deterrence.
 The better we know an individual, the more
accurately we can predict what he or she will
do. As long as the other remains predictable,
trust will endure.
 Predictability enhances trust even if the
other person is predictably untrustworthy.
 Regular communication puts a party in
constant contact with the other.
 It enhances our ability to understand
the way that others approach the world.
 Japanese vs American approach to
business relationships.
Identification-based Trust
 Trust based on a full internalization of the
other’s desires and intentions.
 Mutual understanding developed to the point
where one party could act as the agent for
the other.
 Activities that can strengthen this type of
trust: collective identity, co-location, joint
goals, shared values.
What type of trust is most
commonly associated with
environmental conflicts?
Source: http://www.parshift.com/Essays/essay058.htm
Trust and Distrust
“Rather than being a unidimensional construct, ….
trust and distrust can coexist within the same
relationship (parties can trust each other on some
dimensions and distrust each other on others).
Most complex relationships are thereby characterized
by ambivalence, in which we trust others on some
dimensions and distrust on others, and that we engage
in fundamentally different action strategies to enhance
trust and to manage (control) distrust”.
Roy Lewicki http://www.convenor.com/madison/reply.htm
“…..the trick for mediators may not
necessarily be building trust (a desirable goal)
but to manage DISTRUST in a way to keep it
within bounds and limits.”
Roy Lewicki (http://www.convenor.com/madison/reply.htm)