Responding to Counterterrorism Threats: Effects of Coalition Trust and Mistrust on Organizational Design

摘要

Most research assumes organizational managers should establish high levels of trust. Other scholars suggest trust is declining and therefore raises an important managerial dilemma. We present a study of trust based on contingency theory and hypothesize that trust levels may vary depending on alternative organizational designs. Using ELICIT, a multiplayer intelligence game, we conduct laboratory experiments to examine the relationship between trust levels, organizational design, and performance measures. Results show that trust and organizational design have strong interactions, and that high levels of trust do not necessarily equate to high levels of performance.