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Journal Article

A Multi-Dimensional Study of Trust in Organizations

22 Sep 1998-Journal of Managerial Issues (Pittsburg State University - Department of Economics)-Vol. 10, Iss: 3, pp 303
TL;DR: Wekselberg et al. as mentioned in this paper studied the relationship between trust and risk taking in a group of full-time employees and their co-workers, supervisors, and top management.
Abstract: The essential ingredient of collaborative effort is trust. High performance teams are characterized by high mutual trust among members. Leaders succeed in bringing about change because they are trusted by constituents to reflect their values and aspirations. An organizational climate of trust enables employees to surface their ideas and feelings, use each other as resources, and learn together. Without trust people assume self-protective, defensive postures that inhibit learning. Handy (1996) notes that "distributed leadership," where the leadership role shifts from person to person depending on the stage of the task and nature of the skill set required, has replaced the "follow-me" type of leadership typical of the past. Similarly, De Pree (1989) refers to "roving leadership" and "abandoning oneself to the strengths of others" as strategies for successfully completing work assignments and accomplishing organizational objectives. Underlying these practices is faith in the integrity and belief in the ability of others whom an individual deems trustworthy. The practice of empowerment evidenced by organizations' reliance on self-managed teams requires management to entrust the work force with responsibility and authority. Conversely, employees express trust in managers and in coworkers by accepting these additional elements of their work roles. Team- based organizations are anticipated to outperform traditional bureaucratic structures when it comes to producing quantity and quality, making adaptive changes, and developing employees. In a longitudinal study, Banker et al. (1996) found support for the effectiveness of team-based work settings. More specifically, they reported that a company's shift from a traditional work environment to a team-based work environment (i.e., quality circles with some decision-making authority) resulted in substantial quality and productivity improvements. Trust has historically been viewed by scholars as a fundamental lubricant of social interaction but not really worthy of investigation (Gambetta, 1988). With the recent emergence of collaborative problem-solving teams in organizations, empirical evidence showing the importance of trust is needed. The present study looks at work place trust from a horizontal perspective (i.e., co-worker trust) as well as from a vertical perspective (i.e., trust of both the supervisor and top management). Thus, a multi-dimensional approach to the study of trust in organizations is presented (please see [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] for a description of the various components of this study). The scope of this study is limited primarily to the psychological processes of the trustor (see Wekselberg, 1996). However, the broader social context in which a relationship between a trustor and a trustee exists is given some attention as well. Two dimensions of interpersonal trust (i.e., cognitive-based trust and affect-based trust) and their relationship to key work place behaviors (e.g., risk taking) are examined. Trust of top management and its relationship to key variables, such as desire-to-leave the organization, is looked at as well. Using a sample of 35 full-time employees, we test five hypotheses about trust between focal employees and their co-workers, supervisors, and top management. Reciprocal measures of cognitive-based and affect-based trust were gathered for each focal employee- supervisor dyad as well as focal employee-co-worker dyad. Due to the size of the sample, we consider our research a preliminary investigation of organizational trust. Literature Review McCauley and Kuhnert (1992) pointed out that trust in the work place is a multi-dimensional construct consisting of lateral and vertical elements. Lateral trust refers to "trusting" relationships between the focal employee and co-workers while vertical trust concerns employee trust of his or her immediate supervisor, subordinates, and top management. Both usually reflect an interpersonal or dyadic form of trust, with one exception being trust of top management. …
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Estimates of the primary relationships between trust in leadership and key outcomes, antecedents, and correlates are provided and a theoretical framework is offered to provide parsimony to the expansive literature and to clarify the different perspectives on the construct of trust in Leadership and its operation.
Abstract: In this study, the authors examined the findings and implications of the research on trust in leadership that has been conducted during the past 4 decades. First, the study provides estimates of the primary relationships between trust in leadership and key outcomes, antecedents, and correlates (k = 106). Second, the study explores how specifying the construct with alternative leadership referents (direct leaders vs. organizational leadership) and definitions (types of trust) results in systematically different relationships between trust in leadership and outcomes and antecedents. Direct leaders (e.g., supervisors) appear to be a particularly important referent of trust. Last, a theoretical framework is offered to provide parsimony to the expansive literature and to clarify the different perspectives on the construct of trust in leadership and its operation.

2,970 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using a sample of U.K. wire makers, a model in which personality and work environment antecedents affect proactive work behavior via cognitive-motivational mechanisms was tested and positive self-reported proactive work behaviors were validated against rater assessments.
Abstract: Using a sample of U.K. wire makers (N = 282), the authors tested a model in which personality and work environment antecedents affect proactive work behavior via cognitive-motivational mechanisms. Self-reported proactive work behaviors (proactive idea implementation and proactive problem solving) were validated against rater assessments for a subsample (n = 60) of wire makers. With the exception of supportive supervision, each antecedent was important, albeit through different processes. Proactive personality was significantly associated with proactive work behavior via role breadth self-efficacy and flexible role orientation, job autonomy was also linked to proactive behavior via these processes, as well as directly; and coworker trust was associated with proactive behavior via flexible role orientation. In further support of the model, the cognitive-motivational processes for proactive work behavior differed from those for the more passive outcome of generalized compliance.

1,499 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the relationship between employee perceptions of servant leadership and leader trust, as well as organizational trust, and find that servant leadership correlated positively with both leader trust and organizational trust.
Abstract: Purpose – Aims to explore the relationship between employee perceptions of servant leadership and leader trust, as well as organizational trust.Design/methodology.approach – Uses Laub's Organizational Leadership Assessment along with Nyhan and Marlowe's Organizational Trust Inventory.Findings – Perceptions of servant leadership correlated positively with both leader trust and organizational trust. The study also found that organizations perceived as servant‐led exhibited higher levels of both leader trust and organizational trust than organizations perceived as non‐servant‐led.Originality/value – The findings lend support to Greenleaf's view that servant leadership is an antecedent of leader and organizational trust, and to aspects of other servant leadership models.

511 citations


Cites background from "A Multi-Dimensional Study of Trust ..."

  • ..., 2001), peer trust in the workplace (Ammeter, 2000; Holton, 2001; McAllister, 1995), trust between superiors and subordinates (Barling et al., 2003; Cherry, 2000; Costigan et al., 1998; Dirks and Ferrin, 2002; Korsgaard et al., 2002; Velez, 2000), and organizational trust (Armstrong-Stassen et al....

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  • ...commitment to decisions (Costigan et al., 1998; Dirks and Ferrin, 2002; Iverson et al., 1996; Spence-Laschinger et al., 2001)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the existing literature regarding values in leadership can be found in this paper, where the authors identify issues relating to both personal values and organizational values and identify the underlying factors that separate servant leaders from all other leadership types.
Abstract: This paper reviews the existing literature regarding values in leadership. It identifies issues relating to both personal values and organizational values. The literature indicates that values affect leader behavior, as well as organizational performance. The paper also provides an overview of servant leadership theory and extrapolates applications of the values in leadership literature to three aspects of servant leadership: trust; appreciation of others; and empowerment. Values constitute the foundation of servant leadership. Fundamentally, leader values may be the underlying factors that separate servant leaders from all other leadership types.

457 citations

01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used mediation analysis and structural equation modeling to test the relationship between trust and communication in the oil industry and found that trust of coworkers, supervisors, and top management influenced perceptions of organizational openness, which in turn influenced employees' ratings of their own level of involvement in the organization's goals.
Abstract: Communication plays an important role in the development of trust within an organization. While a number of researchers have studied the relationship of trust and communication, little is known about the specific linkages among quality of information, quantity of information, openness, trust, and outcomes such as employee involvement. This study tests these relationships using communication audit data from 218 employees in the oil industry. Using mediation analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that quality of information predicted trust of one's coworkers and supervisors while adequacy of information predicted one's trust of top management. Trust of coworkers, supervisors, and top management influenced perceptions of organizational openness, which in turn influenced employees' ratings of their own level of involvement in the organization's goals. This study suggests that the relationship between communication and trust is complex, and that simple strategies focusing on either quality or quantity of information may be ineffective for dealing with all members in an organization.

305 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a definition of trust and a model of its antecedents and outcomes are presented, which integrate research from multiple disciplines and differentiate trust from similar constructs, and several research propositions based on the model are presented.
Abstract: Scholars in various disciplines have considered the causes, nature, and effects of trust. Prior approaches to studying trust are considered, including characteristics of the trustor, the trustee, and the role of risk. A definition of trust and a model of its antecedents and outcomes are presented, which integrate research from multiple disciplines and differentiate trust from similar constructs. Several research propositions based on the model are presented.

16,559 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors addressed the nature and functioning of relationships of interpersonal trust among managers and professionals in organizations, the factors influencing trust's development, and the implications of trust for behavior and performance.
Abstract: This study addressed the nature and functioning of relationships of interpersonal trust among managers and professionals in organizations, the factors influencing trust's development, and the implications of trust for behavior and performance Theoretical foundations were drawn from the sociological literature on trust and the social-psychological literature on trust in close relationships An initial test of the proposed theoretical framework was conducted in a field setting with 194 managers and professionals

6,473 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Trust is seen to include both emotional and cognitive dimensions and to function as a deep assumption underwriting social order as mentioned in this paper, and trust is an underdeveloped concept in sociology, promising theoretical formulations are available in the recent work of Luhmann and Barber.
Abstract: Although trust is an underdeveloped concept in sociology, promising theoretical formulations are available in the recent work of Luhmann and Barber. This sociological version complements the psychological and attitudinal conceptualizations of experimental and survey researchers. Trust is seen to include both emotional and cognitive dimensions and to function as a deep assumption underwriting social order. Contemporary examples such as lying, family exchange, monetary attitudes, and litigation illustrate the centrality of trust as a sociological reality. In recent years, sociologists have begun to treat trust as a sociological topic (e.g., Conviser; Garfinkel; Haas and Deseran; Henslin; Holzner; Strub and Priest; Weigert,a,b). Indeed, two short and powerful books, Niklas Luhmann's Trust and Pauoer (1979) and Bernard Barber's The Logic and Limits of Trust (1983), have placed trust at the center of sociological theorizing about contemporary society. Nevertheless, we agree with Luhmann's lament that there is a "regrettably sparse literature which has trust as its main theme within sociology" (8). There is a large quantity of research on trust by experimental psychologists and political scientists, which, however, appears theoretically unintegrated and incomplete from the standpoint of a sociology of trust. These researchers typically conceptualize trust as a psychological event within the individual rather than as an intersubjective or systemic social reality. They also tend to use methodological approaches that reduce trust to its cognitive content through psychometric scaling techniques or to its behavioral expressions in laboratory settings. Luhmann and Barber, on the other hand, present trust as an irreducible and multidimiensional so

3,758 citations

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the independent and joint contributions of employees' creativity-relevant personal characteristics and three characteristics of the organizational context were examined, i.e., job complexity, job complexity and suppor...
Abstract: This study examined the independent and joint contributions of employees' creativity-relevant personal characteristics and three characteristics of the organizational context—job complexity, suppor...

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