Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

11-2025

Abstract

This dissertation advances understanding of how trust shapes salient cross-cultural encounters, drawing on a constructivist grounded theory analysis of 220 interview accounts. Across these narratives, trust-related dynamics consistently appeared alongside 16 other contextual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors. Notably, these dynamics were identified in interviews with participants from all GLOBE cultural clusters, suggesting a degree of cross-cultural breadth that warrants further empirical testing. Together, these patterns indicate that it is not cultural difference alone that makes an encounter meaningful, but how individuals interpret and respond to the possibility or risk of entrusting and being entrusted. Salience emerged at moments when participants had to evaluate intentions, vulnerability, or relational positioning—revealing trust as the interpretive hinge through which cross-cultural meaning is often negotiated.

Because trust repeatedly surfaced as the central integrative dynamic, the research focuses on trustworthiness from the perspective of the trustee—a perspective that has historically been overshadowed by trustor-centered evaluation.

The dissertation introduces the Interpersonal Capacity for Trustworthiness (ICFT) as a situated reflective capacity through which individuals navigate moments of entrustment. ICFT consists of six core dimensions that structure this reflective work: ability, benevolence, and integrity as individuals consider how to present themselves and communicate their intentions before trust is extended, and exposure, legitimacy, and alignment as they recognize and respond to the implications of having been entrusted. Together, these dimensions describe the internal, context-dependent appraisal through which people interpret the ethical and relational stakes of an encounter, shaping how trust becomes enacted, sustained, or strained over time.

The research contributes to theory as a first step toward broadening how trustworthiness is conceptualized, complementing the classic view of trustworthiness as a three-factor assessment with an introspective, context-sensitive, and morally influenced activity. By centering the trustee’s perspective, the study opens space for examining the internal work individuals undertake when deciding how to present themselves before trust is extended, and how they interpret and respond to vulnerability once trust has been granted. This orientation highlights that trustee-centered reflection is analytically distinct from the trustor’s evaluation, which has dominated prior scholarship. In this way, the dissertation contributes to ongoing cross-cultural trust research by suggesting that the emotional and identity-related stakes of trust arise in both professional and personal contexts—whether in high-stakes, structured interactions or in everyday, informal exchanges—and that cultural salience is not produced by difference alone but by the perceived risk of interpretation and response embedded within the encounter.

For practitioners, the ICFT framework offers practical value for leadership and executive development, intercultural communication and global collaboration, organizational practice and role design, and personal growth and relational discernment. It provides a vocabulary for recognizing and navigating the reflective demands that arise when trust is at stake. The model underscores that even small or routine interactions can leave a lasting emotional or relational trace when experienced as moments of entrustment.

Keywords

Trustworthiness, trust, trustee perspective, Interpersonal Capacity for Trustworthiness (ICFT), cross-cultural encounters, constructivist grounded theory, entrustment, reflective capacity, cultural salience, trust dynamics, relational vulnerability, GLOBE cultural clusters.

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Admin

Discipline

Organizational Behavior and Theory | Organization Development

Supervisor(s)

TAN, Hwee Hoon

First Page

1

Last Page

405

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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