Too Much of a Good Thing? Negative Effects of High Trust and Individual Autonomy in Self-Managing Teams

Abstract

A high level of trust can make the members of self-managing work teams reluctant to monitor one another. If low monitoring combines with high individual autonomy, team performance can suffer. Data from 71 self-managing teams of MBA students demonstrated this effect. High trust was associated with higher team performance when individual autonomy was low but with lower performance when individual autonomy was high. Additional analysis showed a moderated mediating role of monitoring and autonomy in the relationship between trust and performance.