An exploratory study on organisational trust relationships

Abstract

The aim of this study was to unify a South African model of organisational trust with the globally accepted Integrative model of organisational trust on a theoretical and empirical level. The antecedents of trust in direct supervisors represented by five personality dimensions and four managerial practices were used to extract the facets of trustworthiness of ability, benevolence and integrity to create a unified trust model. Based on literature, a methodology was developed to re-assign the various dimensions on an item level into three new scales representing the antecedents of trust. Data gathered between 1995 and 2013 in South African organisations by means of the Trust Relationship Audit was used and subject matter experts reassigned the items into the three antecedents of trust. Structural equation modelling was employed to replicate the Martins (2000) model and to test the measurement and structural regression models, arriving at a five-factor model. A unified model of trust in supervisors was fitted to the data and validated. This unified model emphasises the importance of the affective component as an antecedent of trust towards supervisors in organisations in an African context. Managerial concern, based on benevolent managerial practices and communication, was found to have the biggest impact on trust. Integrity as a personality trait was the only other component that had a positive impact on trust. Contrary to most studies, ability had a minimal or negative impact on interpersonal trust in direct superiors, but is a prerequisite for high integrity and benevolence as facets of trustworthiness. Managerial ability and, to a lesser degree, a benevolent personality are necessary but not sufficient for trust to develop. Being very agreeable and competent is not sufficient to be perceived as trustworthy; managers or supervisors also need to exhibit high levels of concern and integrity. In this study the author responds to the calls in the literature that a common terminology be used in trust research. The multitude of measures causes a situation where studies and concepts cannot be compared and therefore no basis exists upon which to build trust research. Future researchers can now with confidence apply the South African model of organisational trust within the context of a globally accepted model.