The Impact of Trust, Understanding and Power on Self-managed Teams

Abstract

Local administrations and companies rely on committed and self-reliant employees to achieve their goals. However, there is limited research on how influencing factors such as trust, understanding, and power affect self-managed teams. This study investigates the modes of interaction of these factors on the team structure within self-managed teams in IT departments and service providers of different German public administrations. The research methodology was a quantitative online survey comprising validated items from standardised test procedures to measure the influence factors. A total of 246 data sets were analysed by regression and mediator analysis. The study found significant positive effects of trust and power on understanding and a mediator effect of power on the relationship between trust and understanding. In conclusion, investments in team member empowerment in low-trust environments can be recommended to improve understanding more significantly than in high-trust situations.