If You Can't Trust, Stick to Hierarchy: Structure and Trust as Contingency Factors in Threat Assessment Contexts

Powley Edward H. and Nissen Mark E.
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Powley Edward H.: Naval Postgraduate School
Nissen Mark E.: Naval Postgraduate School

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 2012, vol. 9, issue 1, 21

Abstract: Organizations have and will continue to face threats and crisis from a number of sources. We study trust from a contingency theory framework and hypothesize that trust levels vary depending on different organizational designs. Using data from the laboratory experimentation tool ELICIT, a multiplayer simulation, we examine the effect of trust levels and organizational design on performance. We find that trust and organizational design have strong interactions and that hierarchical organizations experience performance levels well below flexible organizational structures. We offer implications for managers who are responsible for identifying and responding to threat and crises.

Keywords: trustworthiness; contingency theory; organizational structure; crisis management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1515/1547-7355.1986

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