Conclusion

Trust management is important in any organization, but especially important in conceptual organizations and other organizations that are geographically distributed and knowledge-based. In particular, when organizations need to address large, complex and challenging problems of national and global importance and collaboration among the best scientists and experts irrespective of discipline, department or institution affiliation is required, cognitive and affective trust are both necessary to create shared understanding and new knowledge.

Typical trust mechanisms, such as informal face-to-face interactions and observations, to build and maintain trust are not inherently present in these organizations. Infrastructure that explicitly supports the creation and maintenance of trust appears to be vital. The infrastructure in R&D organizations, including academic institutions, is typically based on department and disciplinary boundaries with intense competition for resources, authority and territory (Benowitz, 1995; Salter & Hearn, 1996). The empirical case study data presented in this chapter illustrates that participation in management by representatives at each physical location, early and continuing dialogue between organization members and management, and the use of integrative power are three infrastructure mechanisms to manage cognitive trust.

Information and communications technology is a necessity in any geographically distributed organization today, and yet it can limit the creation and maintenance of cognitive and affective trust. However, the case study data suggest innovative use of ICT, such as interactive video-conferencing, interactive shared application software, and websites that share organizational information and news, in conjunction with changes in behavior, may help overcome the inherent limitations of ICT with respect to trust.

Tightly-coupled collaboration appears to only emerge in situations where high cognitive and affective trust simultaneously exist. No collaboration will emerge in situations where high cognitive and affective distrust exist. As the case study data illustrate, limited collaboration emerges when affective trust and cognitive distrust exist concurrently. Non-critical work tasks may be given to individuals in these situations, and controls to monitor and support task completion may be utilized. In comparison, competitive collaboration emerges when cognitive trust and affective distrust exist concurrently. Controls to constrain work activities may emerge to manage affective distrust. Limited and competitive collaboration may be manageable, but neither situation is ideal. As one participant noted, when these situations occur, "collaboration isn't fun."

Additional longitudinal data and data from other organizations are needed to increase our understanding of trust within the conceptual organization and similar types of organizations. Issues to investigate include the sustainability of trust over time across distances, and longer-term consequences of distrust.