Trust and Trustworthiness

By Ö. Özer, Yanchong Zheng. The Handbook of Behavioral Operations, 2018

753 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this chapter, we discuss when, how, and why trust and trustworthiness arise to support cooperation within and across organizations. To do so, we first define trust and trustworthiness, discuss how they can be quantified and determine key components of trusting and trustworthy behavior. In addition, we identify building blocks of trust and trustworthiness and offer tangible insights about how to establish trusting and cooperative business/inter-organizational relationships, based on both academic research and case studies from across industries. We all know that trust and trustworthiness matter in almost all aspects of our relationships, business or otherwise. Our friends, foes, family, colleagues, sociologists, management scientists, and even economists recognize this fact (even though some may not acknowledge it). We innately believe being trustworthy is a virtue (or, at least, are taught to think so) and have learned whether and when to trust (to the best of our abilities). And when we trust, we put ourselves in a vulnerable situation (i.e., we take a risk) based upon the expectation that the person we trusted (trustee) behaves in a positive way that is rewarding to us (as trustors). So, we make a risky “investment” of some sort and face uncertainty in the outcome (and may even regret later) when we trust. We also perhaps adjust our trusting and trustworthy behavior depending on the target of our trust, given the relevant context. For example, we may trust our significant other that he or she will return the $250 (or the car) we lend him or her (perhaps with an implicit or explicit expectation of a positive return beyond the actual loan). We probably would not ask him or her to write a contract before lending our car. However, most of us would perhaps require a marriage certificate (a binding contract that can only be annulled after a legal hearing) accepting all requirements governing a marriage before we commit “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part...” and ensure that we provide and receive the care and commitment in the presence of conflicting objectives that we will all face during our marriage. Similarly, most successful business and economic relationships are built upon a considerable degree of mutual trust and trustworthiness. As Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow wrote, “Virtually every commercial transaction has within itself an element of trust” (Arrow 1972). Trust has been the glue for most transactions within and across cultures as long as humans have socialized and transacted. Business owners and practitioners are not oblivious to this fact. They do not begin talking with a potential partner by first writing a complete set of contracts stipulating all 1 Note that you neither need a marriage certificate nor need to rely on trust if (the big if) your spouse’s and your objectives are and will be perfectly aligned with absolutely no uncertainty 100% of the time during the span of your life. Similarly, in such a case, there is no need for a preor post-nuptial agreement.

Subfields: Accounting, General Decision Sciences, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f05c70163160b4ec3b1a8cfc2ff0e87e50b943c7

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Accounting

  1. Bret Crane
  2. Mark Ryan

In General Decision Sciences

  1. Bret Crane
  2. Mark Ryan

In Safety Research

  1. Bret Crane
  2. Mark Ryan
  3. P. Bauer
  4. Paul Rodway
  5. Astrid Schepman

Citations in the corpus