Trust in Computer-Mediated Communications: Implications for Individuals and Organizations

The purpose of this chapter is to explore trust as it relates to computer-aided communications, commonly electronic-mail. There are four objectives for this chapter: (a) to comprehensively define trust as it appears in the scholarly literature, both for human interpersonal trust and for inanimate technology trust; (b) to explore the essence of communications, identifying the common factors that affect the quality of meaning in communicative interactions; (c) to compare and contrast trust in different forms of communication media; and (d) to offer some thoughts on what can be done in the business world to foster and enhance trust, independent of the communication medium chosen.