Trust Across Cultures

It is said that trust is the basis of all human connections, from accidental encounters to close relationships. Trust directs all of the interactions that we have with each other. Jeffrey A. Simpson writes, “Trust involves the juxtaposition of people's loftiest hopes and aspirations with their deepest worries and fears” (1). The human ability for trust and trusting is not measured out on an equal basis. Some people are able to trust easier than others and are better at being trustworthy and judging other’s credibility.

To me trust is being able to count on someone during good times and during bad times.

The concept of trust is an idea everyone toys with in their lives at one point. One may think that trust is based of moral values between a trusting relationship. But it can be more complex than many may think. Trust by definition is the “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something”(1.). To many, it is the bases of a relationship. People trust one another because they teach one another or they love one another. Whatever the case, trust is an essential piece to a relationship. But it’s Implied that both parties don’t take advantage of that trust. This idea is discussed in literature such as in the novel Indian Horse. Throughout Saul’s Journey in the novel Indian Horse he learns about trust by experiencing it as reality then as an illusion and finally as a choice he must make.

What is trust? The dictionary meaning of trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. The second meaning is, confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more others. But what can we really define as trust? In this paper, I will discuss how trust is used every day in different situations, how we deal with trust in various relationships, and how we as individuals practice trust within ourselves.

In this book, trust is defined as “one’s willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable, and competent.” (page xiii) The author recognizes that trust is complex and dynamic. She views trust as the “lubricant” that greases the machinery of the organization. Trust is particularly important where parties are interdependent, or the “interests of one party cannot be achieve without reliance upon another.” In schools “teachers and principals are

Trust has to be earned by everyone. Trust is a very serious word, because it can mean so much to one person. It's usually pretty hard to gain trust and if you break the trust it’s really hard to gain it back. There’s people out there that you can never trust. These people do anything to help themselves out and only care about themselves.

In this corporate era of technology, the thought of integrity being part of our society is surprising enough, let alone having “trust” being part of the equation, which causes more distrust for some populations.

In ADP 6-22 there is a section dedicated to building trust, trust may sound cliché or soft depending on who you are but by developing trust you are in turn developing mutual respect. It says that “it is important for leaders to promote a culture and climate of trust”(ADP 6-22 chapter 6-50)

Building trust takes time and effort up front. It takes deep commitment and follow-through. It pays off.

Thank you for your post. Great Post. I agree with you that trust is important today because Americans are more cynical and less trusting but I also feel that even in the past it has been hard for people to trust. Yes, some countries and groups of people trust more than others but in today’s society and the lack of “communities” that more individualized people become the less they trust.

In this negotiation, we learned that it is important to research your opponent, to understand their culture, not only of their country or backgrounds, but also their company culture. When we are able to understand our opponent’s way of thinking about business and doing business we can then understand how to approach a negotiation situation with them. In this exercise, we learned that it is difficult for us to adjust when it involves breaking or acting in a way opposite of what we are accustomed to. We also learned that although my classmates live in the same country as we do, their upbringings may have similarities to their origin country and will therefore help them to communicate and adjust to that country’s norms and standards. We were surprised how we were able to stay in character although it was hard and it was surprising how people responded when they were unaware of your intentions and strategies. If we had to do this exercise again, what we can do is do more research on our opponents so that we would have an idea of what to expect in the negotiation table.

Having trust makes one fell safe and free of fear enough so that they can focus on other things.

Chinese workers believe that close personal relationships are imperative to effective communication. American companies don’t share the same views and some organizations have even related this to workplace fraternization, which can result in disciplinary action. Since we don’t believe that these relationships are necessary, or even appropriate, we don’t form them and this could affect a bi-national workplace and possibly even carry over to business dealings outside of the company. The Chinese believe that, when conducting business with other people, a relationship must first be formed to gain the trust of business partners.

Another value that is very important in Chinese culture is trust. Trust lies at the heart of successful long-term intercultural business relationships. Therefore, Oldtown employee must be prepared in gaining the Chinese Manager in China trust to deal with business. In China, the cross-cultural business relationships, trust plays an indispensable role since partners from different cultures don’t always have the same values or assumptions about how business works. When trust is developed, partners can navigate difficult issues over time by fostering a candid exchange of ideas, issues and agendas. Developing trust can significantly reduce what Westerners often complain of in their dealings with Chinese counterparts: unpredictable behavior and a lack of transparency. As a Chinese executive at Google put it, “In China, your success depends on how well a person trusts you.”

In order for interpersonal trustworthiness to exist in organizations, a leader-follower relationship must first exist between the parties involved (Caldwell et al., 2010, p. 500). Once that leader-follower relationship is established, leaders have to earn trust. Leaders earn trust by their respective actions, morals and virtues. Trust is can also be based on past history. If something was done in the past which questions a leader’s values, morals or judgment, it would be unlikely that the leader would be trusted in the future. One of the most important parts of being an effective leader is building and maintaining trust. Trust can further be defined as a “multi-dimensional construct comprising different dimensions of the trustee’s attributes that the trustor evaluates” (Ingenhoff and Sommer, 2010, p. 341).