Firsthand Experience and The Subsequent Role of Reflected Knowledge in Cultivating Trust in Global Collaboration
Name
SSRN-id1395732.pdf
Size
179.33 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d73c40077b06b452f4f36033d4fba003
Author(s)
Mortensen, Mark
Beyene, Tsedal
Date Issued
April 24, 2009
Publisher
Cambridge, MA; Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Series/Report no.
MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper;4735-09
Abstract
While scholars contend that firsthand experience - time spent onsite observing the people, places, and norms of a distant locale - is crucial in globally distributed collaboration, how such experience actually affects interpersonal dynamics is poorly understood. Based on 47 semistructured interviews and 140 survey responses in a global chemical company, this paper explores the effects of firsthand experience on intersite trust. We find firsthand experience leads not just to direct knowledge of the other, but also knowledge of the self as seen through the eyes of the other - what we call “reflected knowledge”. Reflected and direct knowledge, in turn, affect trust through identification, adaptation, and reduced misunderstandings.
Subjects
reflected knowledge
global collaboration
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1120.1546
