Analysis of the Relationships among Trust Antecedents, Organizational Structures, and Performance Outcomes

摘要

The project explores and seeks to identify relationships among four trust antecedents, two organizational structures, and two performance outcomes. The results will help to further explain associations between trust level (high or low) and organizational structure. Past research found that the edge organization operating in a high trust environment produces the most accurate results in the least amount of time. Additionally, the research found that accuracy performance in the rigid hierarchy was more resilient than the flexible edge structure to changes in trust level. What has yet to be determined is the extent to which factors leading to perceived trust, also known as 'trust antecedents,' are responsible for performance in a given structure. To empirically study these relationships, the present research analyzes data collected during an ELICIT simulation experiment involving 135 subject responses. The objective of this project is to identify relationships among the trust antecedents (competence, openness, concern, and reliability), organizational structure (edge and hierarchy), and performance (speed and accuracy). Benefits of this research include recommendations for program/project managers of Integrated Product Teams in Defense Acquisition Programs who desire to optimize team performance by addressing trust antecedents and/or organizational structure. In doing so, managers can make more informed decisions regarding team member organization and trust in order to more accurately and rapidly achieve organizational objectives.