Trust and How It Affects Work Groups

Trust and How it Affects Work Groups

Trust between work group members has been seen as a must have requirement in order to

be successful. Where does this trust come from? Is it assumed? We all know what happens

when you assume. Is trust earned? In a work group the time it can take to earn trust from all the

group members could adversely affect the group’s time line and the project as a whole. What

happens when trust is lost? Is it ever regained? Finally, how can we keep trust among group

members. I will address these questions using the following article: Dirks, K. T. (1999). The

Effects of Interpersonal Trust on Work Group Performance. APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, 84(3),

Just about everyone has been in work group ether in school or work environment. During

my 26 year Navy career I have been part of many work groups from designing training devices to

selection boards, all having very high consequences for anything less than total success. It was

assumed by all members that we had the correct qualifications for membership of the group. Still,

we each introduced ourselves and gave a background of our careers. It was in effect an oral

resume stating to the other members that we are qualified and competent to be there and that you

can trust and depend on me. According to Dirks (1999) “[Trust was manipulated by providing

participants with differing perceptions about their partners]” Dirks had two groups, one high trust

group and one low trust group. The high trust group received information that their partners we

team players and that they put the team goals above there own. In the low trust group the

information provided about their partners were those of having self serving goals. The results

were not surprising, for example Dirks (1999) [I felt that they were team players and that I could

depend on them. Also, after reading the bios I was hesitant to work with my teammates]. It

appears that most of the study groups were trusting...