Trust and its Impersonal Nature

Abstract

In the knowledge-based network economy, trust is becoming an increasingly important issue. Both economists (Arrow, 1974) and sociologists (Luhmann, 1979) have pointed at the role of trust as a lubricant in managing uncertainty, complexity, and related risks. Trust reduces transaction costs, and increases spontaneous sociability (see Kramer, 1999, Creed & Miles, 1996). Trust can also have a critical role in enhancing knowledge creation and transfer within the organizational context (Grant, 1996, Kogut & Zander, 1992). Trust is an intriguing and paradoxical issue: in the modern society we need trust more than ever, yet we have less natural opportunities for trust to evolve (e.g. Lahno, 2002, Blomqvist, 2005).

We believe that due to organizational and management challenges, future organizations cannot rely on interpersonal trust only, but demand complementary forms of trust to enhance knowledge creation and transfer, as well as exchange under risk. However, few studies of impersonal trust are relevant for emerging social structures, such as virtual organizations. In general, virtual organizations are formed by business partners and teams who work across geographical or organizational boundaries with the help of information and communication technologies (Rachman & Bhattachryya, 2002).

In this paper we focus on the impersonal nature of trust. Our research objective is to analyze the impersonal nature of trust in organizational and virtual contexts, and to explore its antecedents or building blocks. Our research questions are: How can impersonal trust be understood in organizational and virtual interactions? What are the sources of impersonal trust? The study has been conducted as a critical literature review. We contribute theoretically by analyzing the scattered research on impersonal trust. We will first discuss the nature and role of impersonal trust, and secondly outline the sources for impersonal trust from the relevant, but dispersed literature. Finally, we will conclude by emphasizing the need of a more encompassing theory of trust.