TRUST IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS: HOW DO U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS TEAMS BUILD AND MAINTAIN TRUST?

Abstract

Trust is an important asset in every profession, especially in those professions that are inherently dangerous. The majority of the scholarly research in the literature of trust and team's streams conceptualize trust as an antecedent of effective teams, where trust is necessary for teams to achieve their desired outcome. However, there has been little research that relates trust to high-performing teams, and no published research in academic journals describing how these high-performing teams build and maintain trust. Trust is essential to military teams and especially the elite Special Operation Forces teams. While reviewing the literature, a gap was found as it relates to the exploration of building and maintaining trust within high-performance teams. The research questions were as follows: How do you build trust and how do you maintain trust, within high-performance teams? This study systematically reviewed the empirical literature on the relationship between team performance and trust, specifically amongst high-performing teams. A grounded theory methodology was appropriate for this research because twenty-six special operation forces members were interviewed using semi-structured open-ended guided questions. The population consisted of special operation forces members with a minimum of eight years of experience and who had experience serving in combat. Data analysis followed the Percy, Kostere, and Kostere (2015) formulated step-by-step procedure for inductive analysis. The findings revealed five themes related to building trust: (a) proficiency (b) attitude, (c) humility, (d) values, and (e) motivation. There was also the reveal of four themes related to maintaining trust: (a) to suffer together is to grow together, (b) the willingness to experience failure, (c) self-discipline, and (d) resilience. To verify these themes, a set of follow-up questions were asked to see if the inverse themes would prevent trust, these were the themes that developed: (a) lack of self-discipline, (b) unreliability, (c) lack of motivation, and (d) arrogance. The operators shared what culture they felt their teams provided in order to facilitate trust, and these were the themes: (a) transparency, (b) communication, and (c) respect. All participants disclosed that they trusted their teammates and that they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their team, the mission and this country.