Assessing organisational trust and personality in a public organisation

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on assessing organisational trust and personality in a public organisation. In this quantitative study, conducted in a South African public organisation (Gauteng province), dimensions of organisational trust were correlated with the personality dimensions (measured by combined trust and personality instrument). A cross–sectional quantitative research design was conducted on a selected sample of permanent employees from auditing and support business units (N = 350) at a public organisation. The data was collected through a web-based survey. The results revealed significant relationships between the variables. Specifically, the results revealed that credibility and work support were stronger correlated to agreeableness than the five dimensions of personality. For instance, a Pearson correlation analysis revealed that agreeableness correlated significantly and positively with credibility (r = 0.652) and work support (r = 0.626). In the same vein, conscientiousness correlated significantly and positively with trust relationship (r=0.695) and credibility (r=0.622). Additionally, a positive and substantial significant relationship was observed with the dimension openness to experience which correlated significantly and positively with trust relationship (r=0.505) and work support (r=0.503). Furthermore, the results showed that neuroticism correlated significantly and positively with credibility (r=0.590) and trust relationship (r=0.567). The results of the regression analysis further confirmed that agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience would predict organisational trust. The agreeableness dimension made the most significant predictor of organisational trust. Neuroticism dimension did not make a significant contribution to predicting organisational trust. This indicates that personality dimensions are likely to be related to higher levels of organisational trust. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was executed on the measurement models of the instruments used via SPSS AMOS version 27. As the result of confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the personality and organisational trust dimensions factor structure showed the good fit to the data (χ2= 0.379, df = 2, p = 0.685, CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.02, NFI= 0.99, RFI= 0.98, IFI= 1.00 RMSEA = 0.00); (χ2= 1.195, df = 7, p = 0.302, CFI = 0.999, TLI = 0.998, NFI= 0.995, RFI= 0.989, IFI= 0.999 RMSEA = 0.29), eliminating the need of any modifications. All factor loadings were statistically significant, with highest loading on neuroticism (β = 0.86), followed by conscientiousness (β = 0.80), agreeableness (β = 0.78), openness to experience (β =0.68), credibility (β = 0.98), followed by work support (β = 0.93), team management (β = 0.93), information sharing (β = 0.91), trust relationship (β = 0.86) and interpersonal trust (β = 0.63) respectively.