TRUST AND VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS

摘要

The notion of trust in virtual organizations, VO's, is an oxymoron. Inherently, virtual organizations arouse concerns about security and trustworthiness. Those with an E-customer focus further exacerbate the demands and requirements for trustworthy environments. Trust in virtual organizations is a poignant and timely issue in organizational science and the management of information systems. In the last decade, the topic of trust and virtual teams has been the subject of a scarce and rapidly expanding body of literature, which intersects Human Research Development, HRD, and Management of Information Systems, MIS. (Nandhakumar & Baskerville, 2001; Ishaya and Macauley, 2000; Galvin, 2000; Hugh, 2000, Jarvenpaa, Knoll and Leidner, 1998; Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1998; Iacona and Weisband, 1997; Meyerson, Weick and Kramer, 1996). Entering the 21st century, the velocity of organizational change driven by IT advancements and globalization was already ferocious. However, in the last six months since 9-11, major budget cuts, drastic travel restrictions and sudden geographic distribution have become the norm in many organization to cope with the dire circumstances brought about by the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 in the United States. Virtual organizations with critical missions and compressed time-frames have virtually been spawned overnight since then, to respond to these unexpected and drastic conditions effecting both industry and government worldwide. Developing a just-in-time mechanism for building trust in virtual organizations has become more important than ever.