The implications of organizational culture and trust in the working of virtual teams

The research described in this paper is concerned with examining trust issues in global teams and whether there are any implications for trust in respect to the cultural orientation of firms. Trust is the individual’s (or group’s) belief that another individual (or group) makes good faith efforts to behave in accordance with any commitments both explicit and implicit. This research was carried out as part of a collaborative project between Loughborough and Aston Universities. In this research it was decided to measure whether there was a relationship between perceived levels of trust in the organization and organizational culture as depicted by Cameron and Quinn in the working dynamics of virtual organizations. The research investigated the issue of trust in a number of business situations and showed that there does appear to be a relationship between trust and cultural orientation of firms for the working of virtual teams.