Delay and Trust in Distributed Collaboration

New Millennium, New Workplace:

Implications of Changing Workplace Relationships

Delay and Trust in

Distributed Collaboration

Matthew Bietz School of Information University of Michigan

Overview

• Critical incident/Case study

• Distributed scientific collaboration

• Communication breakdown led to a        loss of trust in the collaboration

• Implications for trust in distributed collaborations

Data Collection

• International collaborative HIV/AIDS

research

– Teams from North America and Africa

• Interviews with scientists about collaboration practices

• 4 subjects independently brought up a recent communication breakdown in the lab

Supported by the John Evans Foundation, the Waterford Project, and National Science Foundation grant  #IIS 0085951.

[pic 1][pic 2]

The Incident

•        African lab attempted a new assay that had been developed in North American lab

• This assay takes at least

4 weeks to complete

– Requires growing cell cultures

•        After an on-site training period, Africans could contact remote expert for help

[pic 3][pic 4]

What Happened?

•        In week 3, African lab technician noticed “something weird” with the cell cultures

•        Africa lab e-mailed the expert, but got no response for several days

•        If the expert would have responded within 1-2 days, the assay could have been salvaged

Consequences

• Lost time and money

• Reputation of African lab was tarnished

• Africans lost trust in the reliability of        the remote expert

Trust in Organizations

• Related to productivity, citizenship behaviors, and other metrics of organizational performance