Academic Seminar :Arzu Wasti , Sabanci School of Managemet

Academic Seminar :Arzu Wasti , Sabanci School of Managemet

Date : 10th March

Time : 1.00 p.m

Place : SOM 1073

 

Trust across Cultures: Implications of Dignity, Face and Honor Logics

This study compares critical trust formation and violation incidents across three employee samples, which represent face (Singapore), honor (Turkey) and dignity (United States) cultures. The dignity-face-honor (DFH) framework is primarily concerned with the concepts of self- versus socially-conferred worth; however, it also holds important implications for cultural differences in trustworthiness, trust formation and violation, and reactions to violations, which so far have not been developed or tested. The framework also allows a differentiation of cultures which have been thus far lumped into the too broad category of collectivism. To this end, Singaporean (N=129), Turkish (N=105) and American (N=108) participants were asked to describe a critical trust and a distrust incident they experienced at the workplace. The data was content analyzed to capture the attributes of the trustee and the social aspects of the situation (e.g., accountability to power holders, group versus individual concerns, visibility) as well as emotional, cognitive and behavioral reactions to the incidents. While the results did not strongly support the expectation that the social elements of the situation would be salient for honor and face cultures, the two samples appeared to experience a deeper trust compared to the US sample, as characterized by extensive rumination as well as greater emotional regulation. Furthermore, the face and honor samples differed in their expression of positive emotions in trust formation incidents and retaliation tendencies in trust violation incidents. These results provide a more nuanced understanding of the influence of culture on trust.