Research into interpersonal trust within organisational contexts tends to concentrate on managers as a referent, largely ignoring the potential social benefits of trust amongst co-workers. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of co-worker trust on selected organisational perceptions and attitudes. Results provided empirical support for the fundamental role of co-worker trust. Co-worker trust was found to be a significant predictor of perceived organisational support, lowered turnover intention, and greater affective commitment. In view of these results, it is suggested that there may be opportunities for organisations to improve individual and organisational effectiveness by engendering trust throughout peer levels.

The recent growth in the trust literature indicates that both researchers and practitioners are continuing to recognise its importance as a factor for determining organisational success and the well‐being of employees. Trust is, however, a complex, multidimensional construct that has generated much debate concerning how trusting relationships might be created. The aim of this paper is to add to current debates by reporting on a study concerning trust within manager‐subordinate relationships within a large Australian organisation. The annual staff survey for this organisation indicated that levels of trust in managers were very low, leading the authors to investigate the predictors and outcomes of this situation. Focus group and survey questionnaire results led to the finding that perceived organisational support, procedural justice and transformational leadership were significant predictors of trust in managers and that turnover intent and commitment were significant outcomes. The implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

᭹ Business leaders everywhere have encountered the reality of resistance and cynicism when introducing change initiatives. ᭹ This paper identifies some of the associations between the challenges of organizational change in the 21st century and the emotional competencies required of contemporary change leaders. ᭹ The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of leader emotional intelligence (EI) on levels of employee cynicism towards change. ᭹ Results from a survey of 448 employees supported the hypothesis that employees would report less change cynicism if managed by leaders whom subordinates rated as emotionally intelligent.᭹ This study will be of interest to managers and people concerned with leadership, change management, emotional intelligence and securing a competitive advantage.

᭹This study compares levels of organizational trust and connected variables between two groups of employees from an Australian public health organization. ᭹ One group ( N = 123) is based in a hospital that will close as part of the organization's transformational strategy, and the other group ( N = 152) is based in other hospitals that will remain open. The first group will become redeployed amongst departments in the remaining hospitals. ᭹The relationships between trust, transformational leadership, fairness, perceived organizational support (POS), commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB conscientiousness) and intention to turnover were investigated, in addition to the relative levels of these variables between the two cohorts of employees. ᭹The hypothesis that future redeployment would result in comparatively negative evaluations of organizational trust and associated constructs was not supported, whereas the hypothesis that traditional exchange relationships would be relevant regardless of an employee's situation was partially upheld. ᭹The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

This study explored the role of emotional intelligence (E1) within transactional-transformational Leadership and examined the impact of each leadership style on trust in leaders and trust in the Organization. Results from 448 public-sector employees slowed that leader El was positively correlated with transformational leadership and transactional-contingent-reward ratings. Leader E1 had a significant and positive relationship with total transactional leadership. Transformational leadership and contingent-reward were both found to be significant positive influences on trust in immediate leader and trust in the organization, confirming expectation. In contradiction to the final hypotheses, transactional leadership also played a significant part in trust scores.