Building interpersonal trust within organizations: a relational signalling perspective

Can Treating Oneself Kindly Inspire Trust? The Role of Interpersonal Responsibility

Self-compassion, as a personal psychological resource, has been proved to play an important role in coping with suffering. Based on self-determination theory, the present study attempts to establish that self-compassion can promote trust, and the sense of interpersonal responsibility mediates this relationship. Study 1 used cross-sectional data in a community sample of 322 adults to reveal that self-compassion was positively related to trust, and the mediating effects of the sense of interpersonal responsibility were significant. Study 2 used the latent cross-lagged panel model among 1304 college students at three-time points set at six-month intervals to replicate the results and proved the longitudinal mediating effects across groups. Finally, a casual chain design was used to test the mediation effect in Studies 3 and 4. The results indicated that self-compassion induced by writing task resulted in a sense of responsibility in Study 3 (N = 145), and the manipulated sense of responsibility promoted both trust behaviors and beliefs in Study 4 (N = 125). Through four studies, this study highlights a novel but unexpected viewpoint that treating oneself in a self-compassionate way can not only help individuals cope with various challenges but also motivate them to obtain interpersonal benefits. These findings can help motivate community workers and mental health researchers to increase social capital by focusing on self-compassion and interpersonal responsibility.

Evaluating the Attitude of Employees from the Practice of Exclusive Talent Management: A Study of Hotel Employees in Delhi

Understanding employees’ attitude towards the practice of exclusive talent management (ETM) has become increasingly important for ethical concerns. Despite its significant importance, this study is one of its kind, which first aims to examine the positive and negative attitude arising from the practice of ETM and also checks for the difference between the talented and non-talented employees. Based on social exchange and signalling theories, past studies have conceptually proposed that there may exist a difference in talented and non-talented employees because of their perception of justice and support, as this practice follows workforce discrimination in the organisation. Second, this article also aims to analyse how perceived justice and perceived support affect the attitude of employees towards ETM practices. Data was collected through the questionnaire method by applying convenience sampling technique, and responses of 735 employees were collected across 15 luxury hotels in New Delhi. Structural equation modelling and mediation analysis were conducted in AMOS to test various relationships. The findings suggest that ETM practices significantly affect both positive and negative attitude of employees. Also, talented employees perceive higher levels of positive attitude than non-talented employees, whereas no significant difference was found in their perception of negative attitude. Further, it was proposed that the differences in the attitude of the employees are because of their perception of justice and support towards ETM practices. It was found that perceived justice mediates the relationship of ETM with both positive and negative attitudes, but perceived support only mediates the relationship of ETM practices and the negative attitude.

Building trusting relationships to support implementation: A proposed theoretical model

This paper presents a theory of change that articulates (a) proposed strategies for building trust among implementation stakeholders and (b) the theoretical linkages between trusting relationships and implementation outcomes. The theory of change describes how trusting relationships cultivate increases in motivation, capability, and opportunity for supporting implementation among implementation stakeholders, with implications for commitment and resilience for sustained implementation, and ultimately, positive implementation outcomes. Recommendations related to the measurement of key constructs in the theory of change are provided. The paper highlights how the development of a testable causal model on trusting relationships and implementation outcomes can provide a bridge between implementation research and implementation practice.

COVID-19-induced governance transformation: How external shocks may spur cross-organizational collaboration and trust-based management

Persistent efforts to meet the demand for cross‐organizational collaboration and trust‐based management have been halted by a mixture of bureaucratic inertia and entrenched New Public Management thinking. This article explores whether the COVID‐crisis has broken the reform deadlock. Based on a handful of recent surveys and interviews conducted by Danish public sector organizations, we look at the crisis‐induced transformations in local public administration. The main finding is that the pandemic has forced administrative agencies to collaborate with each other to solve new and pressing problems in a turbulent environment. Similarly, it has urged public managers to trust the skills and motivation of their employees, who must solve administrative tasks in innovative ways and with limited managerial support, supervision and monitoring. While changes may amount to little more than a temporary departure from normalcy, lesson‐drawing, learning retention and proactive leadership may help to produce a sustainable transformation.

Gender Differences in the Relationship between Interpersonal Trust and Innovative Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Affective Organizational Commitment and Knowledge-Sharing

The innovative behavior of employees is the micro-foundation of enterprise innovation. The objective of this study was to assess the role of gender differences in the effect of interpersonal trust on employee innovation and the mediating roles of organizational commitment and knowledge-sharing. This study tested research hypotheses with a multi-group structural equation model, using data collected from 688 participants in Shanghai, China. The results showed that interpersonal trust had significant impacts on affective organizational commitment, knowledge-sharing and innovation behavior. Affective organizational commitment and knowledge-sharing mediated the effect of interpersonal trust on employee innovation. Furthermore, the direct impact of interpersonal trust on innovative behavior was significantly higher for women than for men, whereas males’ affective organizational commitment increased their knowledge-sharing behaviors. In addition, there were no significant gender differences in the effect of interpersonal trust on organizational commitment and in the effect of knowledge-sharing on innovative behavior. These results confirmed that interpersonal trust was more important for female knowledge-sharing and innovative behavior, and affective organizational commitment was more important for male knowledge-sharing.

Operational and organisational stressors in community correctional work: Insights from probation and parole officers in Ontario, Canada

In the current article, we investigate the occupational stressors parole and probation officers working in provincial correctional services in Ontario, Canada experience. We examine four specific stressors that emerged thematically from participants' open-ended survey responses, and conceptualize these as operational factors (i.e., the duties of the job) or organisational factors (i.e., structural aspects of the organisation in which parole or probation officers work). Participants identified the operational stressor of exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events and secondary trauma, as well as three predominant organisational stressors: paperwork and administrative tasks, insufficient human resources, and workplace relationships and tensions. Drawing from literatures on parole and probation, workplace stress, and organisational cultures and behaviours, we analyse how these stressors have detrimental impacts on the mental health and well-being of community correctional workers, which in turn compromises their ability to effectively supervise and support individuals on their caseload. Policy and well-being implications are discussed.

Impact of team knowledge management, problem solving competence, interpersonal conflicts, organizational trust on project performance, a mediating role of psychological capital

There has been substantial research on megaprojects in project management literature. However, there is dearth of studies empirically investigating performance of new launched megaproject of Thailand that named as "Phuket sandbox". The core purpose of this project is to normalize covid-19 situation and resuming tourism in Thailand. Therefore, the evaluation of project performance is essential to achieve the targeted goal for success. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect project performance (Phuket sandbox) in Thailand. This study used quantitative approach based on structured questionnaire and the data was collected from Phuket, Thailand. The survey conducted from team members which are tourism stake holders' team, immigration team and public service teams including hospitals and hotels who were supposed for the management of Phuket tourism sandbox operations. The study got 222 valid responses only as the members were so busy and partial lockdowns in Thailand hindered the data collection process. The proposed hypothetical model tested by partial least square structural equation modelling. The results of the study found mix findings. The independent variables are team knowledge management, interpersonal conflict, organizational trust, and as significant and dependent variable as project performance through the mediation of psychological capital. The all relationships found to be significant except problem solving competence which have insignificant relationship with project performance as well as problem solving competence and organizational trust have insignificant relation with psychological capital.

Influence of Interpersonal and Institutional Trust on the Participation Willingness of Farmers in E-Commerce Poverty Alleviation

To explore the influence of interpersonal trust and institutional trust on the participation willingness of farmers in e-commerce poverty alleviation in China, a questionnaire survey of 320 farmers in Chongqing Ecological Tourism District was adopted for data collection, and a binary logistic model was used for data analysis. The results showed that (1) both interpersonal trust and institutional trust had a positive influence on the participation behavior of farmers in e-commerce poverty alleviation, and the priority ranking from high to low was: trust in government, trust in relatives, trust in neighbors, and trust in village cadres. (2) Institutional trust had a greater impact on the participation behavior of farmers than interpersonal trust, especially in the poverty-stricken areas where economic development was relatively backward. (3) Individual attributes, household attributes, and rural resource attributes had a significant positive impact on the participation intention of farmers. Among these, the role of rural e-business service platform was particularly important. The role of institutional trust at the village level still did not perform well in promoting the participation willingness of farmers. Based on empirical analysis, the suggestions for promoting the active cooperation of farmers and participating in the cooperation of e-business were put forward, such as enhancing the interpersonal network of farmers, improving the rural e-commerce information service platform, and strengthening the construction of the rural business environment.

The relationship between cooperative and competitive behavioral tendencies and trust in coworkers

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the relationship between cooperative and competitive behavioral tendencies and trust of coworkers in organizations. Two main hypotheses were developed. The first hypothesis was that cooperativeness and trust in coworkers is positively correlated. The second hypothesis was that competitiveness and trust in coworkers is negatively correlated.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample was 442 Turkish tourism sector employees in a labor-intensive industry. Two scales were used to measure trust in coworkers and cooperativeness/competitiveness. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to understand how individuals' behavioral tendency affects their coworkers' trust in them.

Findings

The findings strongly supported the first hypothesis, in that cooperativeness was positively correlated with trust in coworkers. The second hypothesis was only partially supported because there was no significant relationship between competitiveness and the competency and trustworthiness dimensions of trust. Unselfishness aspect of trust, however, was negatively correlated with competitiveness.

Research limitations/implications

The main contribution of this study is to show that employee cooperativeness and competitiveness can affect trust in coworker relations. However, the measurement of competitiveness and cooperativeness measurement had limitations due to differences in the culture-specific meanings of cooperation and competition. Future research employing mixed methods research is needed to further explain the content of the two tendencies and the relationship between the concepts.

Originality/value

The literature on trust and employee relations tends to focus more on the issue of trust between managers and subordinates while neglecting the complex and multifaceted structure of trust in employee–employer relations. However, new working forms mean that horizontal relations are increasingly important. Therefore, more research is needed to address the tendencies and structures that affect trust in coworkers. This study draws attention to the potential role of cooperative and competitive behaviors in trust in horizontal employee relations.

Managing Diversity: The Challenges of Inter-University Cooperation in Sustainability Education

One of the main challenges in sustainability discourse is its multifaceted nature often requiring that many different disciplines must cooperate in order to achieve progress. This issue also concerns sustainability education. In the article, we highlighted the experiences from the international cooperation of university teachers and researchers with highly diverse professional backgrounds who worked together on developing educational materials for university students in sustainability-oriented courses. The study is based on qualitative, participatory evaluation research, applying two rounds of open-ended questionnaires distributed to the same respondents (n = 18). For the analysis, we used the open-coding procedure for identifying the main categories. The results show some of the opportunities and barriers that emerged in the process of this cooperation. In particular, we discuss the issues related to the high heterogeneity of the group, such as the clashes of the different perspectives on the topics covered, group dynamics issues, trust, facilitation challenges, and also opportunities that such heterogeneity offers. We highlight the importance of open reflectivity in sustainability-oriented educational projects as the key to their successful implementation. Finally, we believe that results of this participatory study are useful in designing new projects aiming at further improvement of academic education in sustainability and sustainable development.

How knowledge sharing connects interpersonal trust and innovation capability

Purpose

Knowledge sharing (KS) and innovation are generally believed as the antecedents of key outcomes that help firms to attain and sustain competitive advantage in long term. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanism of how interpersonal trust and leader support affect KS and improve firm’s innovation capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a research paper which is built using empirical data collected from 68 manufacturing and service firms in China.

Findings

First, the findings show that leader supports moderate the correlation between interpersonal trust and KS. Second, KS serves as mediator in the relationship between interpersonal trust and firm’s innovation capabilities.

Research limitations/implications

KS plays a crucial role in stimulating innovation capabilities for both manufacturing and service firms. Future research should explore the effects of the motivational factors (such as positive psychological state, perceived benefits and costs) on KS and firm’s innovation capabilities.

Practical implications

The paper provides the evidence for the positive effects of interpersonal trust on KS, which in turn is significantly associated with product innovation and process innovation. It highlights the important role of leader supports in promoting the degree of sharing knowledge among individuals to enhance innovation capabilities for firms.

Originality/value

This study puts the theory of innovation forward based on exploring the key factors that have potential and positive impacts on two specific types of innovation capability, namely, product innovation and process innovation, for both manufacturing and service firms.

The mediating role of trust to managers on the relationship between corporate reputation practices and employees’ course of actions to customers

Purpose

– The purpose of this study is to examine the role of trust to managers on the relationship between corporate reputation practices and employees’ course of actions to customers in airline sector.

Design/methodology/approach

– A research questionnaire which measures corporate reputation, trust to managers and employees’ course of actions to customers was designed by the researchers. Three hundred forty-three employees who are working in nine different companies in an airline sector have participated in the research.

Findings

– According to the results of the study, corporate reputation practices and trust to managers have an effect on employees’ course of actions to customers; also trust to managers does not have any mediating role between these variables.

Research limitations/implications

– As this study is conducted in airline companies, we cannot generalize the results to the companies in other sectors. In addition, during the application of questionnaires, some participants found the questionnaire too long and they withdrew. This yielded to a lower participation rate.

Practical implications

– The findings of the study may get the board of directors’ or managers’ attention to the point that they should become aware of the importance of corporate reputation, corporate social responsibility, employees’ behaviors and trust in their organizations.

Originality/value

– This study aims to make several contributions to the marketing and management literature. Firstly, it extends the recent marketing and management literature on corporate reputation by examining trust to managers and employees’ behaviors.

Positive Group Affect and Team Creativity

The study explores group-level mechanisms linking positive group affective tone (PGAT) and team creativity. Drawing on Paulus and Dzindolet’s group creativity model and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the mediating roles of team reflexivity and team promotion focus were examined. Survey data were collected from the leaders and members of 98 work teams in South Korea. Structural equation modeling results showed that when controlling for negative group affective tone, PGAT was significantly associated with team creativity. Furthermore, team reflexivity and team promotion focus fully mediated the relationship between PGAT and team creativity, and this effect held when team prevention focus was controlled for. The findings provide meaningful insights into the roles of team reflexivity and team promotion focus as critical social-cognitive and social-motivational processes in the group affect–creativity relationship.