This paper investigates how an organization attempts to repair trust after organizational-level integrity violations by examining the influence of organizational rules on trust repair. We reconstruct the prominent corruption case of Siemens AG, which has faced the greatest bribery scandal in the history of German business. Our findings suggest that tightening organizational rules is an appropriate signal of trustworthiness for external stakeholders to demonstrate that the organization seriously intends to prevent integrity violations in the future. However, such rule adjustments were the source of dissatisfaction among employees since the new rules were difficult to implement in practice. We argue that these different impacts of organizational rules result from their inherent paradoxical nature. To address this problem, we suggest managing an effective interplay between formal and informal rules.

In this Research Note we will explore the role of identity development for the efficiency of leadership relationships. We will hold that identity theory provides a useful theoretical basis from which to gain deeper insights into leadership processes. After briefly reviewing the usage of the identity concept within the field of leadership we will draw on an interactive perspective for explaining the dynamics of identity building and maintaining it. Against this background we will pose research questions on the consequences for effective leadership.

While large and established organizations can rely on well-embedded routines, startups need to first create and maintain them. We refer to this as routinizing. So far, scholars have not yet addressed the challenges of routinizing in young firms and how this relates to their resilience. Routinizing essential-for-survival processes can increase a startup's pre-adversity resilience, which is an organization's capability to anticipate, prevent, and mitigate potential adversity prior to its escalation to secure an organization's existence and prosperity. Based on our qualitative cross-case analysis, we identify startup-specific context factors that inhibit routinizing. Moreover, we show that a high perceived routine value is crucial to successfully routinize, and present ways to increase a routine's perceived value in startups, namely via artifacts and incentives.

We present here our investigation into how corporate employers deliberately seek to foster and build employees’ trust in the organisation through socialisation tactics. Interestingly enough, such deliberate development of employees’ trust in the organisation has hitherto rarely been addressed in academic research. Using qualitative case study research methods, we have closely observed the trust socialisation process experienced by entrant employees, namely apprentices in two separate and highly trusted German companies. Our findings are consistent with former trust socialisation research in that they indicate the importance of high levels of perceived organisational support and of a convincing communication of organisational values and principles. However, our research emphasises further aspects of trust socialisation, such as psychological empowerment, the efficacy of formal organisational rules and especially sensegiving activities.

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