Developing vulnerability trust in temporary high performance teams
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore one vital aspect of team performance, the development of vulnerability trust in temporary high-performance teams (HPTs), within the context of after-action debriefing sessions.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews were conducted with military aircrew members about sharing vulnerable and personal experiences after action in a war scenario. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the qualitative material.
Findings
The study identified six themes that influence the development of vulnerability trust in temporary HPTs: creating familiarity, caring attitude and recognition of other crew members, the power of transparency, fear of rejection, contradictions between team members and the number of listeners in a sharing session. All these themes appeared to have an effect on the development of vulnerability trust.
Practical implications
The study shows how vulnerability trust may affect team development and team performance.
Social implications
The paper not only specifically provides an insight into the development of trust in HPTs but also helps to broaden the understanding of the importance of trust for team development in general.
Originality/value
The paper contributes knowledge on the development of vulnerability trust that is new to research on HPTs, and the study explores how vulnerability trust may affect team development and team performance. The data material for this research has been collected from military operators’ experiences in a war context. Such environments are often shielded from and minimally available for qualitative research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Master’s degree students, Linn Tove Torgersen and Mariann Oldeide Strandheim at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology during the data collection and processing.
Citation
Moldjord, C. and Iversen, A. (2015), "Developing vulnerability trust in temporary high performance teams", Team Performance Management, Vol. 21 No. 5/6, pp. 231-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/TPM-08-2014-0050
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited