Trust Evolvement in Hybrid Team Collaboration: A Longitudinal Case Study

Abstract

Trust is referred to as a key facilitator in team collaboration as it is an important condition for information sharing. In this paper, we investigate factors associated with the establishment of trust in hybrid teams that collaborate virtually as well as face-to-face. Furthermore, we deliver an instrument to understand trust development in teams. We describe exploratory results of the instrument by running experiments with teams of collaborating students in China and Netherlands. Quantitative and qualitative analysis has been used to analyze these data. Finally, in the analysis of the experiments we describe initial patterns of trust development in groups from both individual and group perspectives, in two different cultural contexts.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Survey Questions

Please rank each item on a scale of 1–5; 1 is strongly disagree, 3 is neutral, and 5 is strongly agree.

1 a) I didn’t let my group down this week
1	2	3	4	5
1 b) My group could rely on me this week
1	2	3	4	5
1 c) My group could depend on me this week
1	2	3	4	5
2 a) My group didn’t let me down this week
1	2	3	4	5
2 b) I could rely on my group this week
1	2	3	4	5
2 c) I could depend on my group this week
1	2	3	4	5

3 a) I’m confident about my performance this week
1	2	3	4	5
3 b) I’m sure I did what was expected of me this week
1	2	3	4	5
3 c) I know I performed well this week
1	2	3	4	5
4 a) I’m confident about the group’s performance this week
1	2	3	4	5
4 b) I’m sure the group did what was needed this week
1	2	3	4	5
4 c) I know the group performed well this week
1	2	3	4	5
5 a) I had good intentions for my group this week
1	2	3	4	5
5 b) I wanted the best for my group this week
1	2	3	4	5
5 c) I wanted my group to succeed this week
1	2	3	4	5
6 a) The group had good intentions for me this week
1	2	3	4	5
6 b) The group wanted the best for me this week
1	2	3	4	5
6 c) The group wanted me to succeed this week
1	2	3	4	5
7 a) I did what I promised to do this week
1	2	3	4	5
7 b) I did what I said I would do this week
1	2	3	4	5
7 c) I fulfilled all tasks as we agreed this week
1	2	3	4	5
8 a) The group did what we promised to do this week
1	2	3	4	5
8 b) The group did what we said they would do this week
1	2	3	4	5
8 c) The group fulfilled all task we agreed to do this week
1	2	3	4	5
9 a) I was competent to perform my task this week
1	2	3	4	5
9 b) I could do what I was supposed to do this week
1	2	3	4	5
9 c) I was well able to fulfill my tasks this week
1	2	3	4	5
10 a) The group was competent to perform our task this week
1	2	3	4	5
10 b) The group could do what we were supposed to do this week
1	2	3	4	5
10 c) The group was well able to fulfill our tasks this week
1	2	3	4	5
11 a) I was honest with my group this week
1	2	3	4	5
11 b) I handled with integrity towards my group this week
1	2	3	4	5
11 c) I was truthful with my group this week
1	2	3	4	5
12 a) The group was honest with me this week
1	2	3	4	5
12 b) The group handled with integrity towards me this week
1	2	3	4	5
12 c) The group was truthful to me this week
1	2	3	4	5
13 a) I was open to my group about my progress this week
1	2	3	4	5
13 b) I kept my group fully informed about my progress this week
1	2	3	4	5
13 c) I told the group everything about my progress this week
1	2	3	4	5
14 a) The group was open to me about the progress this week
1	2	3	4	5
14 b) The group kept me fully informed about our progress this week
1	2	3	4	5
14 c) The group told me everything about our progress this week
1	2	3	4	5

Overall I think we have established less/more trust in our team this week:

Please explain why the trust in the team changed.

Appendix 2: Results of ANOVA Analyses

Factors	Significance (F test)
	In total	Over time	Individual versus group
Results of ANOVA (Chinese sample)
Risk	$2.56^{**}$	$2.43^{*}$	$3.53^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Confidence	$2.38^{*}$	$2.02^{*}$	$3.64^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Benevolence	$3.04^{**}$	$2.60^{**}$	$6.57^{*}$
Competence	$0.73^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$0.36^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$3.67^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Honesty	$1.03^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$0.77^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$3.17^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Openness	$1.96^{*}$	$2.08^{*}$	$0.92^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Results of ANOVA (The Netherland’s sample)
Risk	$2.36^{*}$	$2.66^{*}$	$0.55^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Confidence	$2.57^{*}$	$2.95^{**}$	$0.25^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Benevolence	$1.99^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$1.93^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$2.37^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Competence	$2.07^{*}$	$2.33^{*}$	$0.46^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Honesty	$3.20^{**}$	$3.38^{**}$	$2.09^{\mathrm{ns}}$
Openness	$0.64^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$0.57^{\mathrm{ns}}$	$1.07^{\mathrm{ns}}$

1. $^{**}\,\hbox {Sig.}<0.01;\,^{*}\,\hbox {Sig}.<0.05;\,^{\mathrm{ns}}\,\hbox {Sig}.>0.05$