Trust building in non-virtual and virtual teams

Abstract

The world is becoming more virtual, and the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how virtual teams are going to be a bigger part of the future, with several organizations considering incorporating a hybrid workspace layout. When moving from physical to a virtual workspace the social setting changes and leaders must address their followers differently. The goal of this study was to research the trust building relationship in the supervisor-subordinate dyad, and if this relationship affects a team. Further, we were interested to see if there is a difference in this trust building relationship between virtual and non-virtual teams. Trust is argued to be one of the key factors in both leadership and for virtual leadership, but one cannot lead without followers. This dynamic approach led us to research trust from both sides of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, through a mixed methodology. Our study also investigates the leaders’ and team members’ willingness to trust others, five dysfunctions of a team, and trust in teams and leaders’ scales. Our findings suggest that trust has an important role in both leadership and teams, and trust is naturally found to affect a team. Many of the perceived trustworthy qualities for a leader and team member coincide, but there are contextual differences. Based on our findings, trust and different aspects of trusting behavior differs between non-virtual and virtual teams. The paper is concluded with recommendations for future research.