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9 - Culture and trust in contractual relationships: a French–Lebanese cooperation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Hèla Yousfi
Edited by
Mark N. K. Saunders ,
Denise Skinner ,
Graham Dietz ,
Nicole Gillespie  and
Roy J. Lewicki
Hèla Yousfi
Affiliation:
University of Paris-Dauphine
Mark N. K. Saunders
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
Denise Skinner
Affiliation:
Coventry University
Graham Dietz
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Nicole Gillespie
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Roy J. Lewicki
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Summary

Summary

This chapter explores how national cultural differences between partners involved in a contractual relationship may interfere with the development of trust. This is illustrated through a case study of a management contract signed by a French private company (Promostate) and public Lebanese company (SONAT). Using an ethnographic approach and drawing on a qualitative analysis of field interviews, the author argues that the challenges faced by the French and Lebanese parties in developing a trusting relationship are due to classic issues of personal conflicts, differing organizational cultures and power asymmetries. Because their national cultural backgrounds were different, the parties had different conceptions of what ‘good cooperation’ should be that shaped their expectations of trustworthy behaviour and hindered the process of resolving the difficulties they encountered.

Introduction

Contracts are recognized as universal management mechanisms that provide an efficient solution to the problem of coordinating expectations and interactions between economic actors from different nationalities. However, the impossibility of designing complete, explicit and easily enforceable contracts may restrict their effectiveness as a management mechanism (Macaulay, 1963). Trust is supposed to form a viable alternative or complement to contracts. Trust can reduce uncertainty and lead to more efficiently negotiated agreements (Koenig and van Wijk, 1992).

Research on the development of trust in contractual relationships has focused largely on the question of how trust and formal contracts are related. At the same time, culture has been considered a factor in the trust-development process in many ways.

Type
Chapter
Information
Organizational Trust
A Cultural Perspective
 , pp. 227 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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