Trust and Philosophy Flashcards
trust in the organizational literature
Trus is
- the truster’s behavior
- occurs in interdependent relationships
- element of uncertainty about future outcome
- vulnerability of the truster’s interests,
- is difficult to enforce by the trustee
- (…)
Trustworthiness in organizational literature
- is a behavioral disposition of the trustee. It is associated with:
- integrity (reputation for honesty and truthfulness)
- consistency (reliability, predictability, good judgement)
- loyalty (benevolence, willingness to protect, support, courage)
- openness (willingness to share control, ideas and information freely)
- reciprocity (not harming other who have helped the trustee)
- Competence (technical knowledge and interpersonal skill needed to perform the job)
Importance of trust and trustworthiness
- important in social relationships,
- lower transaction costs in economic transactions
- determinants of economic success and stability
- can create competitive advantages
Different theoretical approaches:
- deterrence-based, calculus -based, knowledge-based, institution-based, identification-based trust
- trustworthiness vs. reciprocity
Bases of Trust in Organizations:
Dispositional Trust
People differ in general predisposition to trust other people,
- they seem to extrapolate from trust-related experiences, developing into a personality characteristic
Bases of Trust in Organizations: History-Based Trust
- individuals’ perceptions of personalized trustworthiness of others are largely history dependent
- trust between interdependent actors is “a function of cumulative cooperative interaction”
- individuals’ judgements about others’ trustworthiness are anchored (in part) on their previous expectations
- expectations can change in response to the subsequent experience
Bases of Trust in Organizations: Third Parties as Conduits of Trust
- third parties can diffuse trust-relevant information, e.g. via gossip
- problem: third parties often prefer to communicate information consistent with what others want to hear, thus tend to make partial/skewed disclosures about others
Category-Based Trust
= Trustworthiness based on a trustee’s membership in a social or organizational category
- the shared membership defines boundaries of low-risk interpersonal trust
- In-group bias causes attribution of trustworthiness,
- need for personal knowledge is thus bypassed
Bases of Trust in Organizations: Role-Based Trust
- Trusting a person based on her particular role, rather than one’s knowledge about her capabilities, dispositions, incentives and motives
- the trust is sustained by people’s common knowledge regarding
> barriers to entry into organizational roles
> training and socialization process of role occupants
> accountability mechanism
Bases of Trust in Organizations: Rule-Based Trust
- Shared understandings regarding the system of use
- rules can demonstrate management’s trust in cooperativeness of employees (“open-door policy”) which can increase beliefs about organizational members’ honesty and trustworthiness
Managers as Initiators of Trust: Agency Theory
- Analysis of principal-agent relationship, e.g. design of the contract
- information asymmetry between principal and agent, clashing with conflict of interest between the parties.
- formal and extrinsic incentives used
Managers as Initiators of Trust: Social Exchange Theory
- social element in principal-agent relationships
- the individuals provide benefits to another voluntarily
- social exchange process and development over time
- typically informal and intrinsic incentives
Managers as initiators of trust: further development by Whitener 1998
- theory builds upon social exchange and agency theory
- basic idea: trust within the organization is a function of the manager’s trustworthiness (NO longer employee’s perception of manager’s trustworthiness as focus)
- principal’s (trustee) trustworthiness enhances the agent’s (truster’s) trust
- the principal’s trustworthiness reduces asymmetric information and conflicts of interest, e.g. by being more transparent and delegating tasks
- Result: agent is motivated to act in the interest of the principal
- Circular relationship of trust and trustworthiness between agent and principal
Whitener: Factors enhancing mutual trust within organizations -
Individual factors
- principal’s propensity/disposition to trust is high
- principal’s efficacy regarding his knowledge, skills, and abilities is high, i.e. he is able to delegate control
- the principal has self-transcendent and not self-enhancing values
Whitener: Factors enhancing mutual trust within organizations - Relational Factors
- agents are effective in fulfilling role requirements (e.g. principal communicates more openly)
- a principal’s expectation concerning an agent’s reciprocity is high (e.g. principal will share control)
- the costs for the principal are associated with unreciprocated exchanges among them are low (e.g. the principal will delegate tasks)
Whitener: Factors enhancing mutual trust within organizations - Organizational Factors
- organizations are decentralized, less formal, less hierarchical and focused on effectiveness
- procedural justice principals are applied (e.g. principal gives regular and timely feedback)
- risk taking, inclusiveness, and valuing people are key parts of the organization (e.g. principal communicates openly)
