Outsider Status, Job Title Did Not Affect Trust of Newcomer

A survey went out to 128 office workers in 19 major corporations across eight industries. Instead of just the usual questions and answers, this one also asked the respondent to put him- or herself in a story similar to a case study. The person was to imagine that they had just been placed on a project team of eight with a "critical deadline" only three months away. The new team decided they needed two to three more people, and several days later, one new person was added.

In the project kickoff meeting, the new person had a "take-charge attitude" and called the deadline "no problem," even though the team had wanted more people. Afterwards, the respondent spots the new person "whispering in a corner to the Project Sponsor…" The respondent was asked to rate their trust for the new team member. But the story was varied slightly among the respondents such that the new person was either:

• from inside or outside the company
• the project manager or just a new team member
• male or female

For the most part, none of the variables had any effect on how much the respondent trusted the new person. But that's still significant. It means whether the new person was in or outside the company did not matter. It also meant that just because someone was "the boss," that didn't mean they generated any more initial trust than anyone else on the team. The study also (unintentionally) addressed the question of whether trust must be earned or lost: on average, the new person started out being trusted slightly above a 5 on a 1-10 scale (10 being the most trusting). This indicates trust can be both won and lost from a midway starting point.

The one variable that produced a difference in initial trust has an implication for diversity efforts: women respondents trusted the new member equally whether that person was male or female, but male respondents trusted a male new member somewhat more than a new female, 6 to 5.

Source: Spector, M., and G. Jones (04), "Trust in the Workplace: Factors Affecting Trust Formation Between Team Members," Journal of Social Psychology 144(3):311.