Three Primary Trust Pathways Underlying Ethical Considerations

Journal of Business Ethics · 2010 · Volume 91 · Issue 1

Abstract

The role of trust pathways in achieving a competitive advantage is becoming increasingly important for effective ethical consideration policies in all business and non-business sectors. This paper argues that there are three primary trust pathways of rational choice, rule-based trust, and category-based trust that underscore the basis of trust relationships. The implementation of these primary trust pathways is strongly influenced by expertise level, incomplete information, rapidly shifting environments, and/or time-pressure. Therefinementof the interaction of information exchange and framing of problems can produce three secondary higher-level trust pathways of third party-based trust, role-based trust, and knowledge-based trust. These six different trust pathways that guide ethical consideration issues are discussed with aThroughput Modelingtheoretical approach.

Keywords

ethical considerations, trust relations, throughput modeling theory

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