Tway defines trust as, “the state of readiness for unguarded interaction with someone or something.” He developed a model of trust that includes three components. He calls trust a construct because it is “constructed” of these three components: “the capacity for trusting, the perception of competence, and the perception of intentions.”

Thinking about trust as made up of the interaction and existence of these three components makes “trust” easier to understand. The capacity for trusting means that your total life experiences have developed your current capacity and willingness to risk trusting others.

The perception of competence is made up of your perception of your ability and the ability of others with whom you work to perform competently at whatever is needed in your current situation. The perception of intentions, as defined by Tway, is your perception that the actions, words, direction, mission, or decisions are motivated by mutually-serving rather than self-serving motives. (source: Trust Rules: The Most Important Secret About Trust, by Susan M. Heathfield, About.com)

And this was interesting, but one crucial point is missing: the truth: I do not know everything and may lean on your expertise. If you always tell me the truth then I know that I can rely on what you say and not have to do any further checking up.

Truth and reliability (If you always do what you say you are going to do, it makes your behavior very predictable, which means I can feel even safer around you) can be related to the whole notion of ‘integrity’.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 2:35 am While Dave was in Culture. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.