Despite recent theoretical advances, the pattern of trust development between coworkers is a topic of dispute and many basic trust processes remain unclear. Increasingly, trust researchers are recognising that trust development is a context specific process that requires more nuanced empirical investigation of trust changes over time and in specific situations. Furthermore, theory suggests that employees attend to an array of independent trust cues but it fails to identify which cues are important when. Using a four wave longitudinal field study with 193 participants, this research demonstrates how new coworker intentions to engage in trust behaviours (reliance and disclosure) evolve during employee socialisation, and examine the trust cues that prime decisions to trust. Drawing on existing theory, it is hypothesised that early trust intentions will be related to individual trust propensity and that intention to engage in trust behaviour will increase over time. It is also hypothesised that early trust will be presumptive, based on information about coworker roles, the rules inherent in the organisation, and identification with the coworker group. In contrast, it is expected that as relationships develop, trust will be based on more personal cues (coworker trustworthiness). Latent growth modelling reveals that both reliance and disclosure intentions develop in a positive, non-linear pattern over time. Furthermore, the findings indicate that propensity to trust has a statistically significant effect on the initial status of intention to rely on and disclose information with coworkers but not on changes in trust behaviour over time. The multi-wave design permits comprehensive assessment of the change in the impact of different trust cues over time on intentions to engage in trust behaviour and finds that the importance of certain cues change as a relationship matures. Based on these findings implications for theory, practice and future research are discussed
