This study was designed to study the effects of interpersonal trust in group members on task performance. The experiment was done to examine whether the group of high interpersonal trust in members would show better task performance than the group of ...
This study was designed to study the effects of interpersonal trust in group members on task performance. The experiment was done to examine whether the group of high interpersonal trust in members would show better task performance than the group of low interpersonal trust in members and whether interpersonal trust would effects the characteristic of group process (cooperation, decision making process, effort, etc.) and, consequently, group task performance. The design of the study was between-subjects factorial, with two levels of trust in group members (high trust / low trust). Subjects were randomly assigned to each of two (high/low trust) experimental conditions./ The study revealed the main effect of interpersonal trust in group members on group task performance, showing that the group in which members had high interpersonal trust brought better task performance than the group of low interpersonal trust in members. Also, the group of high interpersonal trust in members showed more excellent characteristic of group process than the group with low interpersonal trust in members. Interpersonal trust in group members appeared to have positive correlations with characteristics of group process such as cooperation, helping others, diagnosis of problem, communication, expression of ideas, listening to others, effort and commitment, all of which also were positively correlated to group performance. It was cooperation that had the strongest correlation with interpersonal trust. Helping and listening to others were most strongly correlated to group performance, proving the most significant predictability of results of group performance. / These finding suggested that interpersonal trust in group members has a main effect on group task performance and that the level of trust effects characteristics of group process, which has an impact on the result of group task performance.