THE EFFECTS OF TRUST, COMMUNICATION AND PROXIMITY ON TEAM PROBLEM SOLVING

This paper discusses an experiment on the interaction of trust, communication, and proximity on team problem solving. The research is motivated by the US Army’s plan to change the organizational structure of the combat infantry from a close-knit brotherhood to an alliance of high-tech autonomous individuals. We are interested in ascertaining the possible consequences this transition may have on teamwork in a context that generalizes to the Army’s mission. In our experiment, communication and proximity were fully crossed in a 2x2 design. Trust at three levels- trust, distrust, and betrayal- was a subject variable revealed by play of an economic game. We find a significant main effect for mode of communication: teams that communicate freely work more effectively. Further, we find a significant main effect for trust. When team members trust each other, they work more efficiently. The lack of a significant interaction between proximity and communication reveals that the quality of team problem solving is not sensitive to the mode of communication. Teams that coordinated their activity using a radio performed no worse than teams that worked face-to-face. This finding bodes well for organizations that rely on remote command and control