Trust-building processes in the context of networks

Abstract

This article explores the extent to which an intentionally executed intervention may trigger trust-building processes in networks. In 2001, a management educational concept – network reflection – was developed and carried out as a programme in a collaboration between a regional university college and a network of Norwegian electronics firms. After the programme ended, the participants, who were mostly strangers, increased their cooperation considerably. During the programme, they built swift trust, word-of-mouth, cognitive trust, an encapsulated-interest in trust and affective trust. Four years after the programme ended, they have cooperated on trust-demanding activities such as developing products together, enhancing quality management systems, using each other as mentors and building on two regional communities of practice. At this time, word-of-mouth, cognitive trust, encapsulated-interest account in trust, affective trust and some committed relations seem to have been built among the participants. With the purpose of finding the cause of this enduring trust effect, this process-based and longitudinal case study investigates how management education can contribute to the building of trust in networks. The primary objective of this article is to explore the extent to which network reflection has the capacity to increase different types of interpersonal trust in networks, and to develop a framework of trust-building processes in networks.

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