The nature and role of trust in temporary virtual problem-solving teams

The objective of this study is to increase understanding of the nature and role of trust in temporary virtual problem-solving teams engaged in real-life co-creation activities, while much of previous research has been conducted in student settings. The different forms and bases of trust, possible trust barriers and trust building actions, and perceived role of trust in knowledge sharing and collaboration are analyzed. The study is conducted as a qualitative case study in case company. Data includes interviews from 24 people: 13 from 3 different project teams that were going on during the study, 8 from already finalized project teams, and 3 founders of case company. Additional data consists of communication archives from three current teams. The results indicate that there were both knowledge-based and swift trust present, former being based on work-related personal experiences about leaders or other team members, and latter especially on references, disposition to trust and institution-based factors such as norms and rules, as well as leader and expert action. The findings suggest that possible barriers of trust might be related to lack of adaptation to virtual work, unclear roles and safety issues, and nature of virtual communication. Actions that could be applied to enhance trust are for example active behavior in discussions, work-related introductions communicating competence, managerial actions and face-to-face interaction. Finally, results also suggest that trust has a focal role as an enabler of action and knowledge sharing, and coordinator of effective collaboration and performance in temporary virtual problem-solving teams.

Trust Embedded Open Innovation: Human-Centricity in the Financial

Globalization and interconnectedness in the worldwide sphere have changed the existing and prevailing modus operandi of organizations around the globe and have challenged existing practices along with the business as usual mindset. There are no rules in terms of creating a competitive advantage and positioning within an unstable, constantly changing and volatile globalized business environment. The financial industry, the locomotive or the flagship industry of global economy, especially, within the aftermath of the financial crisis, has reached a certain point trying to recover and redefine its strategic orientation and positioning within the global business arena. Innovation has always been a trend and a buzzword and by many has been considered as the ultimate answer to any kind of problem. The mantra Innovate or Die has been prevailing in any organizational entity in a, sometimes, ruthless endeavour to develop cutting-edge products and services and capture a landmark position in the market. The emerging shift from a closed to an open innovation paradigm has been considered as new operational mechanism within the management and leadership of the company of the future. To that respect, open innovation has been experiencing a tremendous growth research trajectory by putting forward a new way of exchanging and using surplus knowledge in order to sustain innovation within organizations and in the level of industry. In the abovementioned reality, there seems to be something missing: the human element. This research, by going beyond the traditional narratives for open innovation, aims at making an innovative theoretical and managerial contribution developed and grounded on the on-going discussion regarding the individual and organizational barriers to open innovation within the financial industry. By functioning across disciplines and researching out to primary data, it debunks the myth that open innovation is solely a knowledge inflow and outflow mechanism and sheds light to the understanding on the why and the how organizational open innovation works by enlightening the broader dynamics and underlying principles of this fascinating paradigm. Little attention has been given to the role of the human element, the foundational pre-requisite of trust encapsulated within the precise and fundamental nature of organizing for open innovation, the organizational capabilities, the individual profiles of open innovation leaders, the definition of open innovation in the realms of the financial industry, the strategic intent of the financial industry and the need for nurturing a societal impact for human development. To that respect, this research introduces the trust-embedded approach to open innovation as a new insightful way of organizing for open innovation. It unveils the peculiarities of the corporate and individual spheres that act as a catalyst towards the creation of productive open innovation activities. The incentive of this research captures the fundamental question revolving around the need for financial institutions to recognise the importance for organizing for open innovation. The overarching question is why and how to create a corporate culture of openness in the financial industry, an organizational environment that can help open innovation excel. This research shares novel and cutting edge outcomes and propositions both under the prism of theory and practice. The trust-embedded open innovation paradigm captures the norms and narratives around the way of leading open innovation within the 21st century by cultivating a human-centricity mindset that leads to the creation of human organizations, leaving behind the dehumanization mindset currently prevailing within the financial industry.

Classificações de signos de C.S.Peirce: de ‘On the Logic of Science’ ao ‘Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic’

As classificações dos signos de C.S.Peirce começam a ser desenvolvidas em 1865 e se estendem a até, pelo menos, 1909. Vou apresentar o período que tem início em 1865, e possui dois momentos de intensa produção - "On a New List of Categories" e "On the Algebra of Logic: a contribution to the philosophy of notation". Em seguida apresento as dez classes de signos, uma morfologia que aparece no "Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic", e é desenvolvida a partir de 1903. Meu propósito aqui é familiarizar o leitor com as intrincadas classificações sígnicas de Peirce.

Mental Logic and the Denials of Conjunctions and Disjunctions

ABSTRACT: The mental models theory predicts that, while conjunctions are easier than disjunctions for individuals, when denied, conjunctions are harder than disjunctions. Khemlani, Orenes, and Johnson-Laird proved that this prediction is correct in their work of 2014. In this paper, I analyze their results in order to check whether or not they really affect the mental logic theory. My conclusion is that, although Khemlani et al.'s study provides important findings, such findings do not necessarily lead to questioning or to rejecting the mental logic theory.

Linguistic skills and trust creation in international business relationships

Today’s international business in highly related to crossing national, cultural and linguistic borders making communication and linguistic skills a vital part of the trade. The purpose of the study is to understand the role of linguistic skills in trust creation in international business relationships. Subobjectives are to discuss the importance of linguistic skills in international business context, to evaluate the strategic value of trust in business relationships and to analyze the extent to which linguistic skills affect trust formation. The scope is restricted to business-to-business markets. The theoretical background consists of different theories and previous studies related to trust and linguistic skills. Based on the theory a new LTS-framework is created to demonstrate a process model of linguistic skills affecting trust creation in international B2B relationships. This study is qualitative using interviews as a data collection method. Altogether eleven interviews were conducted between October 2014 and February 2015. All of the interviewees worked for organizations operating in the field of international business in B2B markets, spoke multiple languages and had a lot of experience in sales and negotiations. This study confirms that linguistic skills are an important part of international business. In many organizations English is used as lingua franca. However, there are several benefits of speaking the mother tongue of the customer. It makes people feel more relaxed and it makes the relationship more intimate and allows to continue developing it at a more personal level. From the strategic point of view trust creates competitive advantage to a company adding strategic value to the business. The data also supported the view that linguistic skills definitely impact the trust formation process. Quickness and easiness could be stated as the main benefits. It was seen that trust forms faster because both parties understand each other better and they become more open about information sharing within a shorter period of time. These findings and the importance of linguistic skills in trust creation should be acknowledged by organizations, especially regarding the human resource management. Boundary spanners are in key positions so special attention should be put into hiring and educating employees which then take care of company’s relationships. Eventually, these benefits are economical and affect to the profitability of the organization

A human-centric service approach for architecting and reengineering global system

Production of a new system in any range is expanding dramatically and new ideas are there upon introduced, the logic stands behind the matter is the growth of application of the internet and granting web-based systems. Before producing a system and distribute to the customer, various aspects should be studied which multiple the profit of the system. The process of productizing a new system from being unprocessed idea until delivers to the final user has been unambiguous. In this thesis, the systematize service in a way that benefits both the customer and provider, along with an effort to establish trust and diminish customer’s risk and increase service productivity are in detail presented. Characteristics of Servitization and Productization as two faces of one coin have been interpreted. Apart from the abovementioned issues state of art, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and New Service Development (NSD) has been included in this report for solving the problem of gradually decline in value of companies.

In distrust we trust : analysis of academic apocalypse

The paper concentrates on trust as a research topic that receives increasing attention from the side of different social disciplines. The author of this thesis attempts to identify the reasons of this phenomenon, as well as the decline in usage of the concepts conveying a congenial idea, such as, solidarity, cooperation, social cohesion, social capital or connectedness. The key hypotheses, such as paradigmatic change within the social sciences, emergence of risk society, proliferation of the postmodem condition, new infonnation and communication technologies and the crisis of democracy are considered through the works of the authors who now mainly responsible for the shaping of the discourse of trust. The concepts of Luhmann, Putnam, Sztompka, Fukuyama and Hardin are analyzed from an epistemological viewpoint in its ontological and political implications. The primary goal of the paper is to overview trust from the methodological viewpoint, illustrating the limitations of the concept as a research strategy as weII as it advantages in the epoch when the social sciences acquire a status of moral disciplines.