Organizational work is characterized by positive as well as often negative work behaviors from employees. The same may be said of work done in virtual teams, where computer-mediated communication among team members can be particularly uncivil and inflammatory (Wilson, Straus, & McEvily, 2006). Accordingly, trust has been theorized as more difficult to develop in these types of teams compared to traditional face to face teams. Using a computer simulation of a collaborative team task, this study examined how individuals in virtual teams integrate conflicting pieces of positive and negative information about a teammate into one overall rating of trust. Data were analyzed from 240 individuals to examine the influence of these behaviors on levels of trust toward a target teammate. Evidence of trust quickly developing and declining, i.e., the dynamic nature of trust, in a virtual team was observed. Secondly, the negativity effect was found, where a negative behavior was given more weight in ratings of trust than a positive behavior. Next, the hierarchically restrictive schema was offered as a plausible explanation for the negativity effect due to creating asymmetrical expectations of subsequent behavior based on an initially observed behavior. Lastly, a significant negativity effect was not found when the two behaviors were performed, one each, by a pair of unrelated persons or by a pair of related persons with entitativity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USF/oai:scholarcommons.usf.edu:etd-7083 |
| Date | 28 October 2015 |
| Creators | Lee, Tiffany T. |
| Publisher | Scholar Commons |
| Source Sets | University of South Flordia |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | default |
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