Trust and control interrelations: New perspectives on the trust control nexus

This article is the post-print version of the published article that may be accessed at the link below. Copyright @ 2007 Sage Publications.This article introduces the special issue on New Perspectives on the Trust-Control Nexus in Organizational Relations. Trust and control are interlinked processes commonly seen as key to reach effectiveness in inter- and intraorganizational relations. The relation between trust and control is, however, a complex one, and research into this relation has given rise to various and contradictory interpretations of how trust and control relate. A well-known discussion is directed at whether trust and control are better conceived as substitutes, or as complementary mechanisms of governance. The articles in this special issue bring the discussion on the relationship between both concepts a step further by identifying common factors, distinctive mechanisms, and key implications relevant for theory building and empirical research. By studying trust and control through different perspectives and at different levels of analysis, the articles provide new theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the foundations of the trust-control interrelations

Knowledge sharing within teams: Enabling and constraining factors

In this study, we tested the effects of several team features on knowledge sharing within teams of primary school teachers. We hypothesized that trust in team leader and trust in colleagues, mediated by team identification, will have a positive effect on knowledge sharing. We found indirect effects of both trust variables through team identification and a direct effect of trust in team members on knowledge sharing. We explored, furthermore, a moderator effect of team identification on the relation between team work value diversity and knowledge sharing to examine if team identification diminishes the potential negative effects of team work value diversity on knowledge sharing. Contrary to our expectations, we found no relation between work value diversity and knowledge sharing if team identification is low, while the relation takes a negative curvilinear form if team identification is high. This outcome is explained by the notion that signals of un-sameness in values can produce perceptions of threat and subsequent reactions in high identification teams

Distrust in the balance: The emergence and development of intergroup distrust in a court of law

Despite recent attention to trust, comparatively little is known about distrust as distinct from trust. In this paper, we drew on case study data of a reorganized court of law, where intergroup distrust had grown between judges and administrators, to develop a dynamic theory of distrust. We used insights from the literatures on distrust, conflict escalation, and professional-organization relations to guide the analysis of our case data. Our research is consistent with insights on distrust previously postulated, but we were able to extend and make more precise the perceptions and behaviors that make up the elements of the self-amplifying cycle of distrust development, how these elements are related, and the mechanisms of amplification that drive the cycle. To help guide and focus future research, we modeled the process by which distrust emerges and develops, and we drew inferences on how it can be repaired