Trust Relationships Viewed from a Throughput Modeling Approach

To most individuals, "trust" can be viewed as a knowledge asset that may add, or rest, value to the company. The role of knowledge in achieving a judicious advantage is becoming an increasingly important issue with individuals and organisations. Trust supports an ethical valuation of people and organisations that fundamentally affects relationships with others. When trust is present, communication and problem solving are relatively easy. When distrust occurs, productivity and relational value can suffer significantly. Trust lowers transaction costs in more uncertain environments, thus providing individuals and organisations with a source of unique advantage. Moreover, distrust emerges when the suspicion arises that the disruption of expectations in one exchange is likely to generalise through all other exchanges. As such, the Throughput Modeling approach indicates how six different trust behaviors can be guided, how trust decision making can be improved and made defensible, and how special problems facing individuals, relational systems, and institutions can be dealt with via decision-making pathways leading to action.