Distrusting Online: Social Deviance in Virtual Teamwork

Trust appears to be a central issue for virtual teamworking. Most current literature fundamentally assumes online behavior as equivalent to face-to-face, but that somehow the media reduces or inhibits our ability to engender trust. However, there is substantial evidence that this fundamental assumption does not lead to a complete explanation of the issue. Research indicates that the media actually promotes untrustworthy social behavior. In other words, the lack of trust may be functionally determined rather than incidentally determined. Face-to-face meetings can be used to increase trust and performance through both improved communications and decreased deceptive behaviors.