International Journal of Information Technology Project Management

This article reports what information members of a virtual project team specifically find important for the formation of an initial impression of the trustworthiness of their colleagues.Collaboration in virtual project teams heavily relies on interpersonal trust, for which perceived trustworthiness is an important determinant.We reviewed different trust-requiring and collaborative online environments to determine what information people have available through profiles.Taking this analysis as a starting point, a group of 226 students with experience in virtual project teams was questioned on signals they preferred to use to form an impression of trustworthiness.On the basis of the results obtained we have formulated several recommendations for the design of groupware environments.They pertain in particular to personal identity profiles.