36 Int. J. Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2009 Personality influences trust differently in virtual and face-to-face teams Kimberly Furumo* and Emmeline de Pillis College of Business and Economics University of Hawaii 200 W. Kawili St. Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA E-mail: furumo@hawaii.edu E-mail: depillis@hawaii.edu *Corresponding author David Green College of Business Governors State University 1 University Parkway University Park, IL 60466, USA E-mail: d-green@govst.edu Abstract: Trust is important in teams because the transaction costs in teams are lower when trust is high. The individuals who trust each other feel less compelled to monitor or double-check the work completed by others. In this study, we examine the impact of individual personality dimensions on trust for individuals working in virtual and face-to-face teams. We randomly assigned participants to either a virtual or face-to-face team to complete a project. As expected, higher levels of trust were associated with higher levels of satisfaction. In addition, personality traits predicted trust levels. The effect of personality on trust and of trust on satisfaction is stronger in virtual teams. In order to maximise the trust levels, virtual teams should be comprised of members who are high in agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion, while in face-to-face teams, extraverted individuals seem to report higher levels of trust. Keywords: virtual teams; big five; personality; trust; satisfaction. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Furumo, K., de Pillis, E. and Green, D. (2009) ‘Personality influences trust differently in virtual and face-to-face teams’, Int. J. Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp.36–58. Biographical notes: Dr. Kimberly Furumo is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, USA. She earned her PhD at Southern Illinois University and teaches Information Technology and Quantitative Business Analysis courses. Her research is related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). She has published or has forthcoming publications in journals such as the Communications of the ACM, the Journal of Information, Information Technology, and Organizations, the Journal of Computer Information Systems, Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.