International Trust- Assignment 7, Beth

I am part of a student-run international organization called AIESEC that has over 800 local committees (LCs) at universities worldwide. In order to work towards a mission of cultural understanding, each of the local LCs sets up internships in their area and advertises them in an online forum. Students search through the options looking for what kind of job they want and where they want to live. But, these are not the only things that matter to a student traveling across the world. When a student arrives in a new country, the LC is responsible for taking care of many details of their arrival, including rides from the airport, finding them a place to stay, and getting them a cell phone. This is a major point in the process where trust is crucial. The exchange student needs to be able to trust that there will be people on the other side of the world preparing for their arrival. They are relying on busy students to take care of them.

According to Charles Handy and the Bos et al. article, “Trust needs touch”. Our organization has dozens of international conferences a year for this very reason. By meeting in person and talking about non-work related subjects, we are more able to trust the receiver of our students and set up exchange programs with the LC of someone we know. But, what if we can’t meet someone from every country?

A reputation system would help build trust in our existing online forum. In order to establish a sustained entity for expectations, which Resnick deems necessary, each LC could have a profile to display data about past experiences with exchange students. This information would include: number of internships raised with a higher number showing a more sustained LC, number of exchange students brought in showing experience with exchange students, and a combined rating from all past exchange students based on the comfort and support of the LC in their experience. This feedback would be visible along side the job posting to allow students to judge how much they can trust the LC to cater to their needs when they arrive at their host country.

LCs want to take in exchange students because it increases cultural awareness in the LC and surrounding community…and also brings in some money to the LC. With this motivation, LCs strive to please their exchange students. Future exchange students might trust the whole program more if it had a rating system, as Resnick points out that agreeing to be rated shows “an indication of higher-quality services” (47). Therefore, whether or not LCs manipulate the system by bribing their exchange students to give them higher ratings, the reputation system would help the organization (and human kind) succeed in more exchanges and promote cultural awareness.