WHAT IS TRUST?
Trust is a concept that has received attention in several branches of social science literature: psychology, sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, history, and sociobiology (see Gambetta, 1988; Lewicki and Bunker, 1995; Worchel, 1979, for reviews).
As can be expected, each literature approaches the problem with its own disciplinary lens and filters. Until recently, there has been remarkably little effort to integrate these perspectives or to articulate the key role that trust plays in critical social processes, such as cooperation, coordination, and performance (for notable exceptions, see Kramer and Tyler, 1996; Sitkin, Rousseau, Burt, and Camerer, 1998).Worchel (1979) proposes that these differing perspectives on trust can be aggregated into at least three groups. (See also Lewicki and Bunker, 1995, 1996, for detailed exploration of theories within each category.)
1. The views of personality theorists, who focus on individual personality differences in the readiness to trust, and on the specific developmental and social contextual factors that shape this readiness. At this level, trust is conceptualized as a belief, expectancy, or feeling deeply rooted in the personality, with origins in the individual’s early psychosocial development (see Worchel, 1979).
2. The views of sociologists and economists, who focus on trust as an institutional phenomenon. Institutional trust can be defined as the belief that future interactions will continue, based on explicit or implicit rules and norms (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, and Camerer, 1998). At this level, trust can be conceptualized as a phenomenon within and among institutions, and as the trust individuals put in those institutions. For example, one group of researchers explored the role of trust in interfirm relationships at both the interpersonal and organizational levels. These researchers showed that high levels of interorganizational trust enhanced supplier performance, lowered costs of negotiation and reduced conflict between firms (Zaheer, McEvily, and Perrone, 1998). Others argue that organizations must significantly redesign their governance mechanisms in order to restore the trust that has resulted from a significant loss of public confidence in American corporations in the last decade (Caldwell and Karri, 2005).
3. The views of social psychologists, who focus on the transactions between individuals who create or destroy trust at the interpersonal and group levels. At this level, trust can be defined as expectations of the other party in a transaction, risks associated with assuming and acting on such expectations, and contextual factors that either enhance or inhibit development and maintenance of the relationship. Examples of elaborated models of trust, particularly in organizations, can be found in Colquitt, Scott, and LePine (2005) and Dirks and Ferrin (2001).