Trust in Culturally Diverse Teams

Abstract

As the Canadian Forces is becoming more culturally diverse and personnel are increasingly involved in complex multinational coalition operations, a critical issue is how military teams will be able to work efficiently and effectively despite the challenges posed by diversity. One of the major challenges for future military teams is that perceived differences among teammates could impede the development and maintenance of trust. This study investigates the impact of cultural diversity on trust in teams and on the management of trust violations within these teams. Reserve force military personnel (n = 106) were recruited to participate in this study. Participants were asked to imagine themselves in a specific operational context with a hypothetical teammate. Participants were provided with a demographic profile about a hypothetical teammate, purported to be either from a similar culture (United States), a different culture (Bulgaria), or a very different culture (Sierra Leone). Participants then read an operational scenario involving themselves and the hypothetical teammate. In half of the missions, the teammate was depicted as committing a potential trust violation, with the other half of the missions having no violation. Pre and postmission questionnaires examined participants? trust and expectations about their teammate and mission success. Teammate behaviour attributions and "willingness to risk" were assessed only post-mission. Findings showed that cultural similarity impacted trust and expectations at the pre-mission stage, in that participants had more confidence in their partner and marginally more trust in their team when their teammate was from a similar culture. After more experience with the teammate (postmission), trust violations had a strong and consistent impact, while the role of cultural identity became less pronounced.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA494946

Entities

People

  • Andrea L. Brown
  • Barbara D. Adams
  • Cheryl L. Karthaus
  • Julie J. Famewo

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Applied Psychology
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Demography
  • Employment
  • Joint Military Activities
  • Judgment
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Personnel
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Students
  • Teamwork
  • United States

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design