Ideal-types of Trust and The Role of Suspension

Introduction Confucius, 551-479 B.C., already held the view that trust is a precondition and basis for all worthwhile social relations (cf. Hann 1968). This insight is popular again, but while we can easily relate to it from everyday experience, we still find it difficult to grasp the phenomenon of trust in abstract terms. The question of what trust is and whether it may be amenable to management can only be assessed on the basis of a differentiated concept of trust, showing different sides of the phenomenon instead of taking in everything at once.