Agility in humanitarian supply chain: an organizational information processing perspective and relational view

Humanitarian organizations are increasingly facing challenges in terms of improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of their disaster relief efforts. These challenges often arise due to a lack of trust, poor collaboration and an inability to respond to disaster affected areas in a timely manner. Our study attempts to understand how these challenges are overcome by seeking answers to questions related to the topics of swift-trust, collaboration and agility in humanitarian supply chains. For instance, in our study we have attempted to examine how information sharing and supply chain visibility in humanitarian supply chains improve the swift-trust among the humanitarian actors engaged in disaster relief operations. Further, we attempt to understand how-swift trust, commitment and collaboration among the humanitarian actors improve the agility in humanitarian supply chains. In our study we provide both theoretical and data-driven answers to our stated research gaps. Our theoretical model is firmly grounded in organizational information process theory and relational view. We tested our research hypotheses using variance based structural equation modelling with survey data collected using a web based pre-tested instrument from 147 NGOs respondents drawn from the National Disaster Management Authority database. Our results help to advance the theoretical debates surrounding “swift-trust”, “collaboration” and “agility” in humanitarian settings. We further provide direction to managers engaged in disaster relief operations. The humanitarian actors engaged in disaster relief often fail to understand how to build swift-trust. Moreover, how swift-trust further affects commitment and collaboration which in turn further affect agility in humanitarian supply chains. Thus humanitarian organizations must understand how information sharing and supply chain visibility is key to swift-trust among humanitarian actors and agility in humanitarian supply chains. Finally, we outline the limitations of our study and offer some future research directions for investigation.

How to create trust quickly: a comparative empirical investigation of the bases of swift trust

Swift trust has long been considered of critical importance to the work of project teams and other forms of temporary organizing, but research has remained heavily fragmented in regard to its antecedents or bases. This contribution conducts a systematic review of the literature and derives from it seven possible bases of swift trust. The relative significance of each of these bases is tested through a survey of 172 project managers. Its findings allow for the distillation of the bases of swift trust into three coherent thematic blocks of different significance in the creation of swift trust. Bases related to team composition exert the strongest effects, whereas reputational and institutional information demonstrates much more limited effects, and action-related bases of swift trust are shown to be largely irrelevant. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the formation of swift trust and resolve existing tensions found in the literature.

Swift Trust in Ad Hoc Teams: A Cognitive Task Analysis of Intelligence Operators in Multi-Domain Command and Control Contexts

Trust is important for establishing successful relationships and performance outcomes. In some contexts, however, rich information such as knowledge of and experience with a teammate is not available to inform one’s trust. Yet, parties in these contexts are expected to work together toward common goals for a relatively brief and finite period of time. This research investigated the antecedents to quickly-formed trust (often referred to as swift trust) in fast-paced, time-constrained contexts. We conducted a cognitive task analysis (CTA) based on 11 structured interviews of subject-matter experts (SMEs) in Intelligence (Intel)—a heterogeneous job category comprising distributed and co-located personnel within multi-domain command and control (MDC2) environments. Eight antecedents to swift trust emerged from these interviews (i.e., ability, integrity, benevolence, communication, mission-focus, self-awareness, shared perspectives/experiences, and calm), with further analysis implying that swift trust is a relevant and emergent state in MDC2 that facilitates reliance. These findings offer implications for teams operating in high-risk distributed contexts and should be expanded through basic experimental investigations as well as applied initiatives.