Abstract

Human Resource Development (HRD) confronts a central paradox in the digital age. The technologies designed to broaden access to learning and collaboration often reproduce the same social hierarchies that HRD seeks to challenge. Artificial intelligence (AI), digital collaboration platforms, and algorithmic management are widespread features of organizational life. Yet these systems do not generate inclusive outcomes for all workers. Women of Color (WoC), situated at the intersection of racialized, gendered, and technological structures, experience digital transformation as both possibility and constraint. They encounter opaque decision systems, diminished authority in virtual teams, and digitally-mediated microaggressions, while also developing new capacities for digital resilience and leadership. This dissertation addresses that paradox by advancing a multilevel theory of Socially Legitimized Trust in technology, built across three interconnected layers of trust formation: technical trust, social/relational trust, and relational trust. The inquiry asks how trust forms at the system level through consistent and transparent technical functioning, who gains meaningful access and capability within digital environments, and whose experiences are 11 marginalized or affirmed through daily interactions in technology-mediated teams. These layers create the developmental pathway through which organizations either legitimize or delegitimize trust. The manuscripts follow this scaffold. Chapter II examines technical trust by identifying the mechanisms that support reliable and explainable AI teammates. Chapter III advances social/relational trust by analyzing the capability, access, and institutional conditions that enable or constrain digital inclusion. Chapter IV further investigates social/relational trust by exploring how WoC experience, negotiate, and repair trust within digital team interactions. Chapter V synthesizes these insights to articulate a multilevel theory of Socially Legitimized Trust that positions trust not only as a psychological state, but as a developmental mechanism linking technical reliability, institutional legitimacy, and equitable participation. The contribution is both theoretical and practical. The study offers HRD a coherent framework for building trustworthy and socially legitimate AI systems and a roadmap for designing technology-mediated work that supports ethical performance and intersectional equity.

Date of publication

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4968

Committee members

Kim Nimon, Rochell R. McWhorter, Rob E. Carpenter

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy Department of Human Resource Development

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