In the past decade, issues of trust in inter- and intra-organizational relationships have been increasing in importance on the agendas of organizational scholars, legitimated by changes in the social structure of societies, economic exchange relations and organizational forms. Due to deterioration in the binding power of reciprocal obligations, of hierarchical relations and of social institutions relying on hierarchy to sanction deviant behavior, other mechanisms seem to be required to support co-operative behavior in interactions. Within firms, lateral relationships and alliances are growing in importance, while new linkages between firms are being formed to achieve and maintain competitive advantage in the marketplace. In network forms and alliances, organizational performance becomes increasingly dependent on trustful relations between individuals and groups. A related development is the globalization and virtualization of markets and relations within and between organizations. Emerging 'new communities' like virtual teams and global business networks may bring new problems and related trust requirements that permanently challenge current insights within the field.

By establishing an international forum for scholars from different disciplines, the workshop series seeks to make a contribution to the development of an international research program on 'Trust within and between Organizations.' The first four Amsterdam workshops on this theme, organized in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, each succeeded in bringing together scholars from over 20 countries and a wide range of disciplines, such as economics, marketing, work and organization psychology, sociology of organizations, political sciences, information sciences and linguistics. At the first workshop, the participants decided to organize themselves in FINT, the First International Network on Trust. FINT aims to further international cooperation in trust theory and research.

FINT members have since organized tracks on trust at 2002 and 2003 EURAM conferences, 2004 till 2008 EGOS colloquia, and symposia at the Academy of Management 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2008 meetings. FINT actively aims to further publications on trust, preferably co-authored by scholars from different countries. Workshop- and track papers have been brought together in special issues on trust of Personnel Review (2003, vol 32, 5), Journal of Managerial Psychology (2004, vol 19, 6) and Strategic Change (2005), an edited volume on 'Trust under pressure (Edward Elgar, 2005) and special issues on 'Trust and control' of International Sociology (2005) and Group and Organization Management (2007). Currently FINT members have taken initiatives to edit a Handbook on Trust Research Methodology, to be published by Edward Elgar, and a volume about Trust across Cultures, to be published by Cambridge University Press.

José María Peiró, Universitat de València and Ivie

Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School
Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa, University of Texas at Austin
Denise M. Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon University
Katinka Bijlsma-Frankema, EIASM and Free University, Amsterdam
Sim Sitkin, Fuqua School of Business and Duke University Durham, North Carolina

NH Eurobuilding
c/Padre Damián, nº23
28036 Madrid

For more information: http://www.eiasm.org/frontoffice/event_announcement.asp?event_id=669