[Excerpt] Knowledge workers engaged in interorganizational collaborative initiatives (i.e., boundary spanners) can actively build and maintain interpersonal trust through a multi-step “threat regulation” process. Designed to mitigate counterparts’ fears that harm will arise out of the cooperative effort, threat regulation involves 1) perspective-taking (understanding how others might perceive and experience the risks of cooperation); 2) threat-reducing behavior (intentional efforts to influence others’ negative emotions); and 3) reflection (self-assessment leading to self-corrective actions). When hierarchical authority is absent, which is common in collaborative projects, boundary-spanners can adopt these behaviors to influence others’ emotions so as to gain the requisite trust and cooperation.