THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRUST IN WORK TEAMS: The Impact of Touch Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 22, 1995 240 THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRUST IN WORK TEAMS: The Impact of Touch Dennis S. Reina, Chagnon & Reina Associates, Inc. Stowe, Vermont ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the nonverbal behavior of touch as used in the context of an experiential (adventure) training intervention and its impact on trust among members of work teams. Twelve teams from eleven different industries (N=126), participated in a one-day team building training. Three matched sample groups (existing work teams that were demographically similar) were compared in three similar training interventions (with the exception of the touch dimension). The experimental groups (human touch and object touch) participated in adventure team building training programs. The control group participated in a no-touch team building training program. Participants took pre, post and post-post tests (with two instruments) to measure the behavioral change in trust among the team members four (4) weeks back on the job. The results partially support the hypothesis that physical touch significantly and positively impacts trust among members of work teams in the context of an adventure training when compared with no-touch work teams in the same context and that there are significant differences in the impact of touch on trust between men and women. INTRODUCTION Teamwork has been recognized by business managers and organizational consultants alike as one of the essential factors necessary to improve corporate productivity. In an effort to maximize the efficient use of their people and to achieve these results, organizations are increasingly turning to experiential-based (adventure) training. These corporations are spending millions annually for a type of training for which there is much anecdotal evidence, but little empirical data, as to how ft adds value and how the specific mechanisms work. There are numerous assertions about the value of adventure training for teams: building trust, opening communication, and developing goal setting and problem solving skills are a few. One speculation of how it works is that adventure training is a holistic approach to change (Eddy, in Roland, 1981), emphasizing interpersonal relationships rather than task skills and employing experiential learning techniques (utilizing the cognitive, affective and the physical aspects of the individual), Long (1987). Long added the fact that adventure training requires touch. She concluded that the ‘physical support and touching helps to lower barriers, increases communication, and adds to the bonding of the team”. No research was presented by these authors to validate their claims. RESEARCH QUESTION In the context of an experiential (adventure) training intervention, does the use of physical touch enhance the level of trust among members of a work team? Sub question: Are there differences in the impact of touch on trust between men versus women of work teams in the context of an adventure training? RESEARCH DESIGN The study was a quasi-experimental study which utilized a 2 x 3 factorial (a repeated measures design: with gender by group and the measures being repeated three times with a pretest, posttest, post-posttest used) to test the hypothesis. The independent variables were 1) touch (human touch, object touch, and no touch and 2) gender (male and female). The dependent variable was trust. Sample Size. The sample size for this study was N = 126 with 42 participants in the human touch group, 43 participants in the object touch group and 41 participants in the no touch group. Sampling Design. A non-random “convenience” sampling procedure was used for the actual study. The participants in the study were members of existing (intact) work teams employed across a broad spectrum of industries: medical, high-tech and commercial manufacturing, communications, aerospace engineering, electronics, restaurant, utilities, state government, banking, judicial, accounting, retail and wholesale industries. Instrumentation The study utilized two instruments to operaionalize the dependent variable of trust among members of work teams. The first instrument, the Trust (Team) Inventory (Dixon & Priest, 1994) is a 26 item, self-report semantic differential scale. The second instrument this study utilized was the Trust in Work Environment Questionnaire (Team Scale), a 34 item, self-report, Likert scale (Garrity, Holliman, & Bushardt,1993). RESULTS There was a significant difference between the touch groups on the Team Scale but not on the Team Inventory. In an analysis of variance, on the Team Scale, the experimental (human and object touch) groups showed a significantly greater Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 22, 1995 241 amount of change/increase (p<.O5) in the mean trust scores between the pre and post tests and remained higher (p<.05) four weeks later in the post-posttest for both males and females than did the no touch group. There were no significant differences in gender found on the Team Scale. However, there were significant differences in gender found on the Team Inventory. In an analysis of variance, males significantly differed from females. From the post test to the post-post test, the mean trust scores of males (with all groups) decreased significantly (p<.O5) back on the job, whereas the trust scores of the females varied. Females in the high touch and no touch groups decreased less than the males whereas females in the object touch group increased. In a t-test of males versus females (of all groups) on this same instrument, females scored significantly higher in the pretest than males, p<.05. In the post-post test of the Team Inventory, females also scored significantly higher than males, p<.Ol. However, in the posttest, although females scored higher than males, it was not significant. In a t-test comparing homogeneous gender dominated teams, (teams comprised of all or nearly-all male or females members) with heterogeneous teams (teams comprised of mixed genders), the homogeneous teams (of all three groups) scored significantly higher than the heterogeneous teams on the Team Inventory: in the pretest, p<.OO1; in the post test, p<.OOl; and in the post- post test, p<.Ol. On the Team Scale, there was no significant effect between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous teams. In a further t-test analysis of the homogeneous teams, comparing the all or nearly all male teams against the all or nearly-all female teams, the female teams (of all three groups) scored significantly higher than the male teams on the Team Inventory. In an analysis of variance of the three subscales of the Team Scale, it was found that the amount of trust in management between the pretest and the posttest increased significantly (p<. O1) after the adventure training experiment. In addition, there was an interaction effect (p<.05) between touch and gender. However, trust in management decreased from the posttest to the post- post test. Support for this researcher's observation that the male employee’s trust in management decreased substantially back on the job was confirmed. Regarding the Peer Trust scale, there was a significant amount of trust (p<. 05) among peers indicated from the pretest to post-post test. This study investigated the research topic using quantitative analysis with a qualitative component for additional insight and understanding into the participant’s learning. The unique contribution of this research is that it provides the research literature with a study that has external validity: a) participants were directly and actively involved through the context of experiential exercises, in the experience of physical contact and trust between their follow team members, b) the team building training’s were actual OD (organizational development) interventions conducted with intact work teams from a broad base of industries (11 different) who paid money for the services and received benefit from their participation and c) the study not only measured the impact of the training (and touch) directly after the intervention, but it also assessed behavioral changes of the team members back on the job four weeks later. REFERENCES Garrity, M. A., Holliman, W. B. & Bushardt, S. C. (1993). Trust, efficiency, effectiveness and job satisfaction. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Southwest Division, The Academy of Management, 61-65. Long, J. W. (1987). The wilderness lab comes of age. Training & Development Journal, 41, 31-39. Dixon, T. & Priest, S. (1994) Development of trust from a multiphasic corporate adventure training program. Paper in review. Roland, C. C. (1981) The transfer of an outdoor managerial training program to the workplace. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Boston University. BIOGRAPHY Dennis S. Reina, Ph.D. of Chagnon & Reina Associates, Inc. is an Organizational Development Consultant with offices in Waterbury, VT and Washington, D.C. In his practice, he helps organizations in private industry, state government, higher education and health care deal with change and transition. The firm specializes in strategic planning, management training and development, organizational analysis, group facilitation and team building. Dennis’ particular area of expertise is team design and development. As an adjunct faculty member, he has taught management courses at Trinity and Champlain Colleges in Burlington, VT. His main office is: 111 Stowe St., Waterbury, VT 05676, (802) 244-1544. Table of Contents Volume 22, 1995 Simulation Performance, Learning and Struggle Are Good Simulation Performers Consistently Good? Cognitive and Behavioral Consistency in a Computer-Based Marketing-Simulation-Game Environment: An Empirical Investigation of the Decision-Making Process Chalk & Cheese: Executive Short-Course vs. Academic Simulations Revisiting Personality Bias in Total Enterprise Simulations Are Good Strategies Consistently Good? Investigating the Use of a Computer Simulation as an Effective Pedagogical Tool for the Application of a Strategic Model The Problem of determining an Individualized Simulation's Validity as an Assessment Tool A Simulation Based Analysis of the Value of Information in the Hrebiniak Joyce Typology of Adaptation Relative to Porter's Generic Strategies The Impact of Sales and Income Growth on Profitability and Market Measures in Actual and Simulated Industries A Comparison of a Stand Alone Version of a Simulation with the Traditional Competitive Version Computer-Assisted Gaming of International Business Analyzing Simulations with Computer-Based Programs and Applying the Experience to a Real-World Business A Preliminary Investigation of the Use of a Bankruptcy Indicator in a Simulation Environment Graduates' Views on the Use of Computer Simulation Games Versus Cases as Pedagogical Tools An Analytical Advertising Model Approach to the Determination of Market Demand Dealing with the Complexity Paradox in Business Simulation Games A Prototyping Approach for Incorporating Large Data Bases into Media Planning Simulations: An Example Using Magazine Media Through the Looking Glass, Inc: Superior-Subordinate Personality Type and the Leniency effect Evaluating the Effectiveness of Role Playing Simulation and Other Methods in Teaching Managerial Skills Student and Teacher Perceptions of a Management Simulation Course Performance Evaluation: The Effect on the Propensity to Create Budgetary Slack Management Team Formation for Large Scale Simulations Comparative Static Analysis with the Complete PPA Package: A Strategic Market Planning Tool Consistency in Intent: Learning Objectives at the 1994 Intercollegiate Business Policy Competition A New Twist on an Old Game: The Business Strategy Game: A Global Industry Simulation 3ed Evaluation of Performance in Management Simulation: A Management Coefficients Model Building SimuWorlds: Strategic Management Games of the Future Bulls and Bears: A Stock Market Simulation A Systems Thinking Paradigm and Think Computer Simulation Model of Broadcast and Cable Television Industry Competition Jacket Factory The Sales Management Simulation The Marketing Management Simulation A Demonstration of Promodel Demonstrating A New, Cross-Functional Business Simulation: Vision+ A Cost Chain For The Business Strategy Game Simulation Special Session On Experiential Teaching Compensation Dilemmas: An Exercise In Ethical Decision-Making Organizational Storytelling: Telling Tales In The Business Classroom Evaluating Experiential Training: Case Study And Recommendations The Internship Portfolio: An Innovative Tool For Experiential Learning, Critical Thinking, And Communication An Ethnographic Analysis Of The Pedagogical Impact Of Cooperative Communicating Consumer Behavior: A Long-Term Integrated Exercise Using Personal Consumption Journals And Consumer Analysis Papers An Experiential Paradigm For Teaching Business Problem Solving Developing Leadership Skills The Spss® Student Assistant: The Integration of A Statistical Analysis Program Into A Marketing Research Textbook Negotiating With Your Students Using TQM Principles To Transform Accounting Systems Into An Experiential Exercise Enhancing The Effectiveness Of Outdoor-Based Experiential Training Using Virtual Reality Concepts Case Writing In A Developing Country: An Indonesian Example Experiential Learning Using Focus Groups How Real Should Experiential Pedagogy Be? A Viewpoint From Our Students Reengineering The Internship: A New Approach To Experiential Learning Utilizing The Cosmopolitan/Local And Marginal Man Constructs To Measure Students' Propensity For Creativity Developing Experiential Processes For Teaching Quantitative Techniques For Business Team Learning Roles: A Cooperative Learning Technique Creating the Ultimate Small Business Student Experience: Melding Score/Ace with SBI The Development of Trust in Work Teams: The Impact of Touch Some Outcomes of Experiential Learning: How the Cultural Dynamics of Different Countries are reflected in Workplace Norms & Values Incorporation of Job Analysis Results in Various Forms of Selection Interviews Chudesno, Inc.: An Evaluation of an Experiential Training and Development Simulation An Exercise for Exploring the Relationship between Jungian Psychological Types and Organizational Dynamics Partnership: A Radical Approach to Experiential Learning Partnership: A Nice Idea, But How Do I Get Started? Recognizing Discrimination at Work Using Critical Incident Skills Questions to Help Students Become More Successful at Job Interviewing The Video Project Introduction to Psychological Type Theory Come On Down Understanding Facilitation for Development and Continuous Learning: A Micro-Workshop Leadership and Empowerment: An Experiential Exercise in Decision Making Experiential Exercises and Pedagogy Track Workshop: Selecting a Manager for Maquiladora, Inc. Experiential Training In Multi-Cultural Corporate Settings The Role of Facilitation as an Aid to Complete Learning An Experiential Exercise to Illustrate Difference in Information Processing Behaviors and Styles How to Deliver Accessible Survey Results Age Diversity in the Workplace- Family Feud Style Nafta Standoff: A Cross-Cultural negotiating Role-Play Three Strikes and You're Out!: A Downsizing Experiential Exercise