| Trust is the “glue” that holds teams together (Harrington-Mackin, 1994). With trust, teams function smoothly and efficiently by freely sharing knowledge, skills, and ideas among members. Without trust, teams are stifled; collective learning, knowledge sharing, creative problem solving, and process improvement is restricted (Argyris, 1999; Reina, 1999; Senge, 1990). Organizational learning theorists submit that the functioning quality of teams determines an organization's capacity to adapt to change, ultimately affecting their competitiveness in this era of rapidly changing, global competition (Watkins & Marsick, 1993).; Therefore, those organizations that have high-performing teams also possess greater organizational learning capacity over those that don't. By employing innovative and effective team development practices, organizations are more apt to tap individual and collective performance potential, consequently enhancing their competitive power (Phillips, 1999; Roland, Wagner, & Weigand, 1995).; This quasi-experimental investigation was designed to compare differences in trust scores (dependent variable) between experimental groups (independent variable) immediately following intervention (posttest) and again 30 days later (postposttest). Three groups were compared: (1) traditional team building—classroom discussion, (2) experiential team building—classroom discussion with innovative group activities, and (3) control—no team building. The Team Trust Scale (TTS) was used to measure trust outcomes, and an open-ended Team Building Questionnaire (TBQ) was used to gain insights on the overall team building process. The results of this study, via analyses of covariance (ANCOVA), indicated that experiential team building methods maintained a statistically significantly higher trust level than the control group over time when traditional team building methods did not.; This paper provides a detailed and comprehensive description and review of this investigation including history and theory of organizational, experiential, and team learning concepts; an overview of trust constructs relative to social and workplace relations and outcomes; research methods and design implemented; and interpretation and implications of the study's results. |
