Bridging the boundaries in virtual teams: Active trust building through signals of trustworthiness

Virtual teams are increasingly common in companies. At the same time companies have yet to conquer the challenge to enable such teamwork to flourish. Virtual teamwork is fraught with problems of cooperation, wherefore... [ view full abstract ]

Virtual teams are increasingly common in companies. At the same time companies have yet to conquer the challenge to enable such teamwork to flourish. Virtual teamwork is fraught with problems of cooperation, wherefore decentralized solutions such as trust are of prime importance in a context characterized by uncertainty and vulnerability. However, our understanding of how trust develops in the virtual context is limited. More generally there is also very scarce research taking a process-view on trust. Based on an ethnographic field study in a hybrid virtual Shared Services team we thus develop a theoretical model about different practices, which trustees and trustors can engage in to enable the leap of faith in the sense of a confident suspension of uncertainty in a virtual team. We conceptualize trust development as a process consisting of different interrelated practices (partially) tailored to the virtual team environment. By doing so, we show that it is a process of co-creation, i.e. trustee needs to (actively) send a signal and trustor needs to perceive it.