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Does Trust Matter More in Virtual Teams? A Meta-Analysis of Trust and Team Effectiveness Considering Virtuality and Documentation as Moderators

May 2016
Journal of Applied Psychology 101(8)

DOI:10.1037/apl0000113

Authors:

Joachim Hüffmeier

TU Dortmund University

Guido Hertel

University of Münster

Team trust has often been discussed both as requirement and as challenge for team effectiveness, particularly in virtual teams. However, primary studies on the relationship between trust and team effectiveness have provided mixed findings. The current review summarizes existing studies on team trust and team effectiveness based on meta-analytic methodology. In general, we assumed team trust to facilitate coordination and cooperation in teams, and therefore to be positively related with team effectiveness. Moreover, team virtuality and documentation of interactions were considered as moderators of this relationship because they should affect perceived risks during teamwork. While team virtuality should increase, documentation of interaction should decrease the relationship between team trust and team effectiveness. Findings from 52 studies with 54 independent samples (representing 12,615 individuals in 1,850 teams) confirmed our assumptions. In addition to the positive overall relationship between team trust and team effectiveness criteria (ρ = .33), the relationship between team trust and team performance was stronger in virtual teams (ρ = .33) as compared to face-to-face teams (ρ = .22), and weaker when team interactions were documented (ρ = .20) as compared to no such documentation (ρ = .29). Thus, documenting team interactions seems to be a viable complement to trust-building activities, particularly in virtual teams. (PsycINFO Database Record

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RESEARCH REPORT

Does Trust Matter More in Virtual Teams? A Meta-Analysis of Trust and

Team Effectiveness Considering Virtuality and Documentation

as Moderators

Christina Breuer

University of Münster

Joachim Hüffmeier

TU Dortmund University

Guido Hertel

University of Münster

Team trust has often been discussed both as requirement and as challenge for team effectiveness,

particularly in virtual teams. However, primary studies on the relationship between trust and team

effectiveness have provided mixed findings. The current review summarizes existing studies on team

trust and team effectiveness based on meta-analytic methodology. In general, we assumed team trust

to facilitate coordination and cooperation in teams, and therefore to be positively related with team

effectiveness. Moreover, team virtuality and documentation of interactions were considered as

moderators of this relationship because they should affect perceived risks during teamwork. While

team virtuality should increase, documentation of interaction should decrease the relationship

between team trust and team effectiveness. Findings from 52 studies with 54 independent samples

(representing 12,615 individuals in 1,850 teams) confirmed our assumptions. In addition to the

positive overall relationship between team trust and team effectiveness criteria (␳⫽.33), the

relationship between team trust and team performance was stronger in virtual teams (␳⫽.33) as

compared to face-to-face teams (␳⫽.22), and weaker when team interactions were documented

(␳⫽.20) as compared to no such documentation (␳⫽.29). Thus, documenting team interactions

seems to be a viable complement to trust-building activities, particularly in virtual teams.

Keywords: trust, virtual teams, documentation, team effectiveness, meta-analysis

Virtual teams have developed from a somewhat “exotic” niche

phenomenon to an established work design over the last 10 –15 years

(e.g., Gilson, Maynard, Jones Young, Vartiainen, & Hakonen, 2015;

Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014). Today, most large companies rely on

virtual teams at least to some extent (e.g., Perry, 2008;Society for

Human Resource Management, 2012). One main challenge of virtual

teams seems to be the development and maintenance of trust (e.g.,

Duarte & Snyder, 2006;Li, 2007), leading to suggestions how trust

might be maintained under conditions of high virtuality. A critical

presupposition of such effortful trust building strategies is that team

trust is related to high team effectiveness. Interestingly, whereas trust

has been shown to be a significant predictor of organizational out-

comes for various referents of trust, such as direct supervisors or

organizations (Colquitt, Scott, & LePine, 2007;Dirks & Ferrin, 2002),

the impact of trust in working teams is less clear. Whereas some

studies have revealed a positive relationship between team trust and

team effectiveness (e.g., Davis, Schoorman, Mayer, & Tan, 2000;De

Jong & Elfring, 2010), others have found no relationship (e.g., Hertel,

Konradt, & Orlikowski, 2004) or even negative correlations (e.g.,

Dirks, 1999;Langfred, 2004).

The current study extends existing research in three central

ways: First, we provide one of the first meta-analyses on trust and

team effectiveness in working teams (see also De Jong, Dirks, &

Gillespie, in press).

Second, we extend qualitative summaries on

trust in virtual collaboration (e.g., Germain, 2011;Mitchell &

Zigurs, 2009) by investigating whether virtuality moderates the

In accordance with established conventions (e.g., Kozlowski & Ilgen,

2006;Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp, & Gilson, 2008), we use the terms team

and group interchangeably in this article.

This article was published Online First May 26, 2016.

Christina Breuer, Organisational & Business Psychology, University of

Münster; Joachim Hüffmeier, Social, Work and Organisational Psychol-

ogy, TU Dortmund University; Guido Hertel, Organisational & Business

Psychology, University of Münster.

This research was supported by the research training Group 1712/1,

funded by the German Research Foundation.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Christina

Breuer, Organisational & Business Psychology, University of Münster,

Geiststraße 24-26, 48151 Muenster, Germany, or Guido Hertel, Organisa-

tional & Business Psychology, University of Münster, Fliednerstraße 21,

48149 Münster, Germany. E-mail: christina.breuer@uni-muenster.de or

ghertel@uni-muenster.de

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

2016, Vol. 101, No. 8, 1151–1177 0021-9010/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000113

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