The mechanism of trust affecting collaboration in virtual teams and the moderating roles of the culture of autonomy and task complexity

Abstract This study investigates the mechanism by which trust is formed and affects collaboration in virtual teams. In so doing, we identify the judgement dimensions involved in determining interpersonal trustworthiness (i.e., ability, benevolence, integrity and goal congruence) and systems through which virtual interactions are organized and executed (i.e., system performance, system design, and system assurance). We also examine the way in which trust influences three distinct aspects of collaboration (i.e., cooperation, coordination, and knowledge sharing). Further, we investigate whether trust and collaboration would be affected by the culture of autonomy and task complexity. The proposed hypotheses were tested with data from 483 respondents collected in South Korea. The results find that coordination and cooperation enhance knowledge sharing and that trust is critical in determining all aspects of collaboration. We find that ability, integrity, and goal congruence as well as system performance and system design are significant in forming trust. The results also indicate that virtual teams with strong autonomy have greater trust and collaboration than those with weak autonomy. Virtual teams carrying out complex tasks exhibit higher trust and collaboration than those working on simple tasks.