The Interplay among Trust, Risk, and Reliance in Global Systems Engineering Teams

Trust is an integral element of any collaboration. We sought to investigate the interplay among trust, risk, and reliance within the context of Global Systems Engineering (GSE) teams. To this end, we conducted an empirical study of individuals' processes and considerations when presented with hypothetical scenarios that required long-term and short-term commitments, in addition to relinquishing control to others in their team. In this paper, we present the results of our 1-1 interviews of 57 individuals collaborating in GSE teams within five organizations. Our results suggest that study participants often readily trust their peers and those higher in the organizational hierarchy when no long-term commitment is required, and the participant retains control of the scenario. Our study findings also suggest that this finding does not necessarily extend to scenarios in which their decision entailed loss of control and thus higher risk and reliance. Our investigation of an individual's decision-making processes and the influence of trust on these processes provide us with insights that can be used to refine GSE managers' strategies and guide future research.