Global Collaboration via Reflected Knowledge

In HBS Working Knowledge, a look at how to make remote and global collaboration work. ' .... Based on 47 semi-structured interviews and 140 survey responses in a global chemical company, this paper explores the effects of firsthand experience on intersite trust. We find firsthand experience leads not just to direct knowledge of the other, but also knowledge of the self as seen through the eyes of the other-what we call "reflected knowledge". Reflected and direct knowledge, in turn, affect trust through identification, adaptation, and reduced misunderstandings.... '