Trust and Communication in a Digitized World: Models and Concepts of Trust Research PDF
Preview Trust and Communication in a Digitized World: Models and Concepts of Trust Research
Progress in IS Bernd Blöbaum Editor Trust and Communication in a Digitized World Models and Concepts of Trust Research Progress in IS More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10440 € Bernd Blobaum Editor Trust and Communication in a Digitized World Models and Concepts of Trust Research Editor BerndBl€obaum UniversityofMu¨nster Mu¨nster,Germany ISSN2196-8705 ISSN2196-8713 (electronic) ProgressinIS ISBN978-3-319-28057-8 ISBN978-3-319-28059-2 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-28059-2 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016931279 SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Printedonacid-freepaper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface “Trustdiesbutmistrustblossoms.”(Sophocles) Often,notuntiltimesofcrisisdowerealizehowfragiletrustrelationsare.Normally, we experience a state of intimacy or familiarity with partners and friends, but also vis-(cid:2)a-visorganizationsandinstitutions.Wedonotrealize,however,thatthebanking and financial system are fraught with risk. As regards science, we do not expect scientific misconduct. Moreover, before the revelations by Edward Snowden, it seemedimpossiblethatintelligenceserviceswouldspyonthephoneandmailtraffic of private people and politicians. Finally and most recently, a respectable German automobile manufacturer has been caught manipulating emission tests, thereby destroying its customers’ trust. While living and acting within an environment of trustworthinessvis-(cid:2)a-vispeople,organizations,andinstitutions,onlycrisesrevealthe risksentailed.Thatiswhenintimacyandfamiliarity—conditionsthatneglectrisk— turnintotrust,andriskisperceivedasacentralelementtothisrelation.Thus,trust constitutesarelationshipshapedbyrisk,inwhichthepersonwhotrustsmakeshim- orherselfdependentonthepersonheorshetrusts. Without trust, societies, organizations, and individuals cannot act. Trust func- tionsasasocialglue.Itcreatesoptionsfordecisionmakingandactions.Inprevious years,academiahasgivenmoreattentiontotrustasascientificcategory.Ithasbeen afocusofresearchinmanagementstudies,psychology,andsociology,aswellasin communication and media studies, sports sciences, law, political studies, history, religious studies, and information science. Depending on the perspective, trust is conceptualized as a quality inherent to relationships, a state, or an individual disposition. The influence of digitization on personal relationships, on the actions of orga- nizations,andonsocietyasawholeisunparalleledinrecentyears.TheInternethas transformed work processes within the economic system along with the relation between media and their audience and the notions of privacy in our network society—tonamejustafewexamples. v vi Preface Digitizationtransformstheconditionsforcreatingandmaintainingtrust.Manip- ulationswithinthefinancialsector,thesurveillanceofdatatraffic,orrevelationsof plagiarism and forgery in science are closely related to digitization. On the one hand,theInternetprovidesnewopportunitiesformanipulation,enhancingbreaches of trust. On the other hand, it facilitates access to knowledge and experience. Drawing on the evaluations and comments of others—be they laypeople or experts—reducestheamountofriskinherentintrust-basedsocialactions. Thecontributionstothisbookexaminehowtrustisbuiltandmaintainedunder theconditionsofdigitization.Thechaptersrevolvearoundmedia,sports,science, andtheeconomyasfourprototypicalfieldsofresearch,accompaniedbytheaspect of social relations. The contributors focus less on presenting empirical findings from trust research in the abovementioned areas. Rather, the authors draw upon modelsandconceptsderivedfromtheiranalysesoftrustintheirfieldsofinterest. Digitization challenges trust research to reconsider its conceptualizations of trust, trustworthiness,andtrustrelations.Thisbookpresentsinsightsintothis. Althoughnumeroustrustcrisesillustratethattrustrelationshavebecomemore fragile in a digitized world, several contributions give evidence that the Internet provides options for enhancing trust. What is more, the Internet has developed equivalent means that have the potential to replace trust. Thus, when it comes to trust relationships, digitization involves not only the question of risk but also of opportunities.Further,thechaptersprovideinsightsintotheroleofantecedentsand moderating influences when people evaluate trustworthiness. They reveal which factorsinfluencetrustbuildinginpersonalrelationships,withinorganizations,and withinsocialsystems. BerndBlo€baum’scontributionsystematizes—bynomeansexhaustively—factors on behalf of both trustor and trustee that influence their trust relationship. He distinguishes between various trust objects and factors that have an impact on the evaluationoftrustworthiness.Mostlythroughtheexampleofmassmedia,theauthor further reflects upon how digitization is transforming trust relationships and the elements affected by this process. Anil Kunnel and Thorsten Quandt elaborate on the concepts of relational trust and distrust. Whereas relational trust encourages interactions and helps build relationships, the function of relational distrust is to preventhazardousrelationships.KunnelandQuandt’smodelofrelationaltrustand distrustinsocialrelationsdisclosesthoseelementsthatcontributetoasharedidentity andstrengthofties—especiallyundertheconditionsofnetworktechnology. ThechapterbyKatherineGrosser,ValerieHase,andBerndBlo€baumfocuseson online journalism as a specific field of interest. The authors present a model that takes into account changes with regard to both journalism and recipients. They underline how, as a result of digitization, new elements related to journalistic research and presentation become more important for the recipients’ evaluation of journalism’s trustworthiness. In general, though, online journalism struggles to prove its trustworthiness. The contribution by Florian Wintterlin and Bernd Blo€baum is also located within the field of journalism research. The scholars Preface vii examine how newsrooms and journalists check the trustworthiness of digital sources. To present valid information, media rely on credible sources. By means of digitization, many sources have not just become more easily accessible; news- roomsalsoreceivevastamountsofinformationwhoseoriginremainsunclear.The authorspresentamodelthatsystematizesjournalism’strustin(digital)sourcesand its antecedences. Taking a sociological approach, Christian Wiencierz and Ulrike Ro€ttger analyze trust in organizations. With the example of political parties and nongovernmental organizations, they demonstrate which factors influence the trustworthiness of organizations, as well as the implications of these results for organizations’ day-to-day business. Sarah Westphal and Bernd Blo€baum concep- tualize trust as a form of social action that only comes into effect under specific circumstances. According to their argumentation, trust in online information sourcesisnotanomnipresentphenomenon,butisratheraspecialtypeofrelation- shiplimitedtooneindividualsourceand,overall,arareoccurrenceinthiscontext. Dopingrepresentsamajorchallengeforthedevelopmentoftrustwithinthefield of sports. Dennis Dreiska€mper, Katharina Po€ppel, Daniel Westmattelmann, Gerhard Schewe, and Bernd Strauss disclose that doping constitutes a serious problem for trust relations with regard to sports—for athletes and sports associa- tionsaswellasfortheiraudiencesandsupporters.Thecontributorspresentamodel includingboththeantecedentsoftrustinhigh-performancesportsandadescription oftheparticularrisksforathletes,associations,andaudiences.Specialemphasisis placedondiscussingtheeffectsofdigitizationandmediatizationontheprocessof trustbuilding. Aswithotherareasofsociety,sciencedependsontrust.Thisincludesbothtrust in science and trust within the system of science. Friederike Hendriks, Dorothe Kienhues,andRainerBrommeintroducetheconceptofepistemictrustasameans toovercomeuncertainty.Referringtothedigitizedknowledgesociety,theydiscuss antecedentsoftrustintherelationshipbetweenexpertsandlaypersons. How does digitization change trust relationships with regard to the economic sphere? In their contribution, Philipp Romeike, Christina Wohlers, Guido Hertel, and Gerhard Schewe analyze how trust building is transformed within work pro- cesses based on digital communication. They disclose how in order to overcome temporalandspatialdistances,electronicperformancemonitoring—ifenactedprop- erly—maysupplementandsupportmutualtrustbetweensupervisorsandemployees. Inthatregard,whatmattersistheemployees’subjectiveperceptionthatsuchcontrol is appropriate or legitimate. The authors outline a clear agenda for supervisors in modernworkplacestoworkuponmaximizingsuchperceptionsonthesideoftheir employees. Analyzing only those factors relevant for trust relations between supe- riorsandemployees,theauthorsdefineimplicationsfortrust-enhancingleadershipin workingrelations.JensMazeiandGuidoHertelrefertoadifferentcontextinwhich trust is relevant. They take into consideration the increasing use of digital commu- nicationinnegotiationprocesses,thereby focusingonboth the antecedents and the consequences of trust in electronic negotiations. The scholars illustrate which viii Preface psychological negotiation strategies result in an increase of trust and also illustrate potential benefits of digital as compared to face-to-face negotiation. The question whichskillspromotetrustinworkingrelationstakescenterstageinJensKanthakand GuidoHertel’scontribution.Theirresearchrevolvesaroundvirtualteamsworkingin differenttimezonesatseparatelocationsandgettingintouchwitheachotheronlyvia digitalmeansofcommunication.Bearinginmindtheasynchronicityofthiscommu- nication, Kanthak and Hertel’s model reveals those factors that are fundamental in creating trust within virtual teams. Ayten O€ksu€z, Nicolai Walter, Bettina Distel, Michael Ra€ckers, and Jo€rg Becker’s chapter focuses on modern information tech- nologiesanddiscussestheirusagewithinthedisciplineofinformationsystems.The authorsdiscloseanopennesstowardthequestionoftrustwithinthisfieldofresearch. Ratherthanconcentratingmerelyontheaspectoftrustintechnology,thediscipline further analyzeswhichfactors contribute to buildingtrust bymeans ofinformation technology,particularlywhendealingwithissuesofrisk. Social media in particular are responsible for transforming communication betweenindividualsandwithingroups.Thereremainnumerouschallengesregard- ing trust building and the relationship between privacy and the public sphere. ReginaJucks,GesaLinnemann,FranziskaThon,andMariaZimmermannexamine howpeoplebuildandperceivetrustthroughlanguage,e.g.,thespecificwordsused in the digital environment. While some expressions are related to self-disclosure and empathy, others, e.g., technical jargon, point to competence of the speaker. RicardaMollandStephaniePieschlrefertotheterm“collectiveprivacy”inorder to describe a central trust phenomenon of communication within online social networks.Thecontributorsarguethatsocialmedia usersmay bewilling toreveal private information because they assume that against the backdrop of collective privacytheirdisclosureswillbehardlyacknowledgedbyotherusers. Thenumerouscontributionsaretheresultofanintensive,interdisciplinarycoop- erationstretchingoverseveralyears—acooperationthatstillremainsararephenom- enonwithinacademia.ScholarsofvariousdisciplinesfromtheUniversityofMu¨nster suchascommunicationandmediastudies,psychology,economics,sportscience,and information science examined the effects of digitization on trust building in more than20researchprojects.Thefindingspresentedinthisvolumerepresentmerelya segment of our joint research (for further publications, see www.uni-muenster.de/ GK-Vertrauen-Kommunikation/publikationen/publikationenindex.html.)Thestudies are part of the Research Training Group “Trust and Communication in a Digitized World,” financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG), a cooperation of doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and professors from five disciplines. Eachdoctoralthesisissupervisedbyateamofsupervisorsfromtwoacademicfields and, usually, further supported by international mentors. With this volume, the authors hope to contribute to a more thorough understanding of trust in the age of the Internet. However, at the same time, the chapters uncover major research gaps andshowtheneedforfurtherresearch. Preface ix Thepublicationofthisvolumewaspossibleonlyduetothegreatsupportofmany. Alongside the contributing authors, I would like to thank in particular Franziska RohdeandStephanV€ollmickefromtheResearchTrainingGroup,whoweredeeply involved in the management of the publication. Also, a very special thanks to the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald for providing the editor with a trustingenvironmentinwhichtopreparethispublication. Mu¨nster,Germany BerndBl€obaum
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