What is Intra-Team Trust

The widespread use of international teams has been driven by an unprecedented need to draw upon varied talents of employees from around the globe in a manner that is both organizationally and financially feasible. Despite the importance of technologies to enable such teams, their success depends largely on the levels of intra-team trust and collaboration they are able to establish throughout the life of their projects. Team members on international teams may differ substantially on a number of cultural dimensions including preferences for individualistic versus collective teamwork, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and contextual communication. This chapter will investigate how these four cultural dimensions are likely to impact trust within an international team. Suggestions that team leaders can utilize to address these cultural dimensions are also presented.