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Is Trust Always Better than Distrust? The Potential Value of Distrust in Newer Virtual Teams Engaged in Short-Term Decision-Making

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Benjamin Lowry

    (City University of Hong Kong)

  • Ryan M. Schuetzler

    (University of Arizona)

  • Justin Scott Giboney

    (University at Albany, State University of New York)

  • Thomas A. Gregory

    (Georgia State University)

Abstract

The debate on the benefits of trust or distrust in groups has generated a substantial amount of research that points to the positive aspects of trust in groups, and generally characterizes distrust as a negative group phenomenon. Therefore, many researchers and practitioners assume that trust is inherently good and distrust is inherently bad. However, recent counterintuitive evidence obtained from face-to-face (FtF) groups indicates that the opposite might be true; trust can prove detrimental, and distrust instrumental, to decision-making in groups. By extending this argument to virtual teams (VTs), we examined the value of distrust for VTs completing routine and non-routine decision tasks, and showed that the benefits of distrust can extend to short-term VTs. Specifically, VTs seeded with distrust significantly outperformed all control groups in a non-routine decision-making task. In addition, we present quantitative evidence to show that the decision task itself can significantly affect the overall levels of trust/distrust within VTs. In addition to its practical and research implications, the theoretical contribution of our study is that it extends to a group level, and then to a VT setting, a theory of distrust previously tested in the psychology literature in the context of completing non-routine and routine decision tasks at an individual level.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Benjamin Lowry & Ryan M. Schuetzler & Justin Scott Giboney & Thomas A. Gregory, 2015. "Is Trust Always Better than Distrust? The Potential Value of Distrust in Newer Virtual Teams Engaged in Short-Term Decision-Making," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 723-752, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:grdene:v:24:y:2015:i:4:d:10.1007_s10726-014-9410-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10726-014-9410-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas A. O’Neill & Samantha E. Hancock & Katarina Zivkov & Nicole L. Larson & Stephanie J. Law, 2016. "Team Decision Making in Virtual and Face-to-Face Environments," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 995-1020, September.
    2. Anil Kumar Thekkat & S. Victor Anandkumar, 2021. "Luxury Shopping Websites: The Impact of ‘Hygiene’ Design Factors on Trust and Distrust," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 10(3), pages 290-299, September.

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