Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing Arrangements Collaborative Trust Scale

Resource Summary

What is it? An anonymously collected survey to assess levels of trust between collaboration partner organizations. This scale can make discussions about trust safer and more productive. The survey is a useful tool to help people explore together their differing expectations and build stronger and more productive collaborative relationships.

When can I use it? This tool is intended to help current or potential CJS partners enhance relationships and overcome any barriers that may limit effective CJS implementation. It can be used at any point in a CJS initiative, but typically after some personal and organizational relationships have developed among team members.

How do I use it? The survey should be completed anonymously by every member of a collaborative partnership. If the number of participants from each partner organization is sufficiently larger to ensure anonymity then it may be useful to collect organizational identifiable information to assess trust from each partner organization’s perspective. It can be done in a group setting or independently by participants. It should only be completed by people who have direct contact and interaction with each other’s organization. Each survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.

What is next? This survey is intended to help agencies assess the level of trust between organizations and confidence in the leadership of the CJS initiative. After scoring, average scores for each of the five dimensions of trust examined should be developed. Areas where low levels trust may exist can be identified and discussed. Trust building activities, group structural changes, or group process changes to enhance group functioning may be appropriate. Quality improvement tools and techniques exist that can be used to address concerns revealed through this survey. You can contact Gianfranco Pezzino at phsharing@khi.org for further information. Additional tools are also available from the Center for Sharing Public Health Services to help partners examine and discuss important factors in designing their CJS agreements.

This tool requires calculation of a score. Print the PDF if you want to fill it out on paper and calculate the score manually. Select the Excel file if you are planning to fill it out electronically and want the score to be calculated automatically. Publication number CSPHS/11-V1.