Swift Trust in Distributed Ad Hoc Teams

摘要

Swift trust is trust developed quickly even without direct and personal experience with another person and has been increasingly posited in the literature to be one way in which members of ad hoc teams can quickly form trust (Meyerson, Weick & Kramer, 1996). This pilot study explored whether the regimental identity of teammates could influence levels of 'swift' trust within teams. The secondary focus of this experiment was the impact of potential trust violations. Twenty-four teams of Canadian Forces (CF) reservists each conducted four tactical assault missions in a first-person gaming laboratory. Each 4- person team was composed of 2 CF personnel and 2 confederate researchers (purported to be CF personnel). Members of the team worked in a simulated distributed environment (separated by partitions), and were initially introduced to each other only using a 1 page written profile that described their background and operational experience. Their task in the computer game was to operate as 2 separate fire teams approaching the target area from 2 different sides in order to engage and destroy terrorists. Teammates communicated via radio only but interacted within the simulated mission area through their computer avatars. In order to manipulate regimental identity, the 2 confederate members of the newly formed and distributed team were reported to come from either the same regiment or a different regiment as the actual CF participants. In addition, to investigate whether trust violations affected the development of trust over the four missions, in half of the missions, a confederate team member performed a behavior that could put the team at risk. Questionnaires assessed the impact of regimental identity and potential trust violations on levels of team trust before the mission began (pre-mission), during a mission freeze (about 5 min into the mission) and at the end or post-mission.