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The Role of Culture, Workgroup Membership, and Organizational Status on Cooperation and Trust: An Experimental Investigation
Author(s) -
Loh Jennifer Min Ing,
Smith Joanne R.,
Restubog Simon Lloyd D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00688.x
Subject(s) - workgroup , social psychology , psychology , affect (linguistics) , work (physics) , organizational culture , public relations , political science , mechanical engineering , computer network , communication , computer science , engineering
We examined how interactions among participants' cultural backgrounds (e.g., Australian vs. Singaporean) and multiple subgroups (e.g., cultural group membership, workgroup membership, organizational status) affect trust and cooperation in the workplace. University students (120 Australians, 120 Singaporeans) responded to hypothetical scenarios of cooperation and trust in the workplace. The results indicated that, for both Australians and Singaporeans, trust and cooperation were more strongly influenced by workgroup membership and organizational status than by cultural group membership. Participants trusted and cooperated more with work in‐group members than with work out‐group members, and trusted and cooperated more with superiors than with peers. Theoretical implications are discussed.