Trust-Mistrust as a Design Contingency: Laboratory Experimentation in a Counterterrorism Context

Abstract

Trust research assumes organizational managers ought to establish high levels of trust. Research also suggests trust is decreasing and therefore raises an important managerial dilemma. We study trust from a contingency theory framework and hypothesize that trust levels may vary depending on different organizational designs. Using the ELICIT multiplayer intelligence game we conduct laboratory experiments to examine the effect of trust levels and organizational design on performance. Results are mixed: trust and organizational design have strong interactions, and high levels of trust do not necessarily equate to good performance.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA503238

Entities

People

  • Edward H. Powley
  • Mark E. Nissen

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Command And Control
  • Information Exchange
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Instructions
  • Knowledge Management
  • Mental Processes
  • Networks
  • New York
  • Organizational Structure
  • Psychology
  • Simulations
  • Social Psychology
  • United States

Readers

  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.