Management Papers

Document Type

Technical Report

Date of this Version

9-2006

Publication Source

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Volume

101

Issue

1

Start Page

1

Last Page

19

DOI

10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.05.005

Abstract

Trust is critical for organizations, effective management, and efficient negotiations, yet trust violations are common. Prior work has often assumed trust to be fragile—easily broken and difficult to repair. We investigate this proposition in a laboratory study and find that trust harmed by untrustworthy behavior can be effectively restored when individuals observe a consistent series of trustworthy actions. Trust harmed by the same untrustworthy actions and deception, however, never fully recovers—even when deceived participants receive a promise, an apology, and observe a consistent series of trustworthy actions. We also find that a promise to change behavior can significantly speed the trust recovery process, but prior deception harms the effectiveness of a promise in accelerating trust recovery.

Copyright/Permission Statement

© 2006 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

deception, negotiation, trust, trust repair

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Date Posted: 25 October 2018

This document has been peer reviewed.