At What Level (and in Whom) We Trust

Abstract

Despite the importance of trust across multiple levels in organizations, extant reviews have focused predominantly on trust at the individual level. A systematic review of trust research across levels and trust referents is sorely needed to synthesize the growing number of both micro and macro studies on this topic. Moreover, as trust is a linchpin for divergent areas, such as negotiation, leadership, team processes, human resource management, organizational change, entrepreneurship, and strategic alliances, a multilevel-multireferent review of trust can facilitate integration in the field of organizational sciences. In this review, the authors adopt a levels-of-analysis approach to organize the research on trust between 2000 and 2011 in multiple referents that include interpersonal, team, and organization at the individual, team, and organizational levels and analyze the similarities and differences in antecedents, consequences, and theoretical perspectives dominant at each level. Building on this foundation, the authors identify current strengths, weaknesses, and research gaps; offer recommendations for integration across levels and referents; and discuss lingering questions that research so far has overlooked. In doing so, the review offers a systematic and comprehensive view of the current state of the trust literature in organizational sciences and provides a blueprint for future research.

How differences in perceptions of own and team performance impact trust and job satisfaction in virtual teams

“…As interdependence and interactions with other team members are core elements of a virtual team member's job, the team member's level of trust toward those team members should impact on her or his level of job satisfaction. This is in line with a number of empirical findings (see Fulmer & Gelfand, 2012, for a review). As an example, McNall and Roch (2009) found that trust in the manager was significantly positively related to job satisfaction as employees who trust their supervisors are willing to reciprocate this trust in the form of desired work behaviors.…”

“…Employees are able to distinguish between different trust foci, that is, trusting the organization, the top management, their direct supervisor, or other members of their team (Fulmer & Gelfand, 2012). In this article we concentrate on the level of trust an individual in a virtual team holds toward her or his fellow team members.…”

“…Tse & Dasborough, 2008). Fulmer and Gelfand (2012) reviewed 375 studies on trust and found that a large fraction of these relied on social exchange theory and explained interpersonal trust as resulting from the inputs and outputs of the exchange relationship with the trust referent. These studies frequently found that a lack of trust resulted from an imbalance in the exchange (e.g.…”

How Do Controls Impact Employee Trust in the Employer?

“…Research attests to the benefits of high employee trust. Trusting employees are more committed and stay with the organization longer, work harder and more cooperatively, share knowledge, and problem solve more effectively (e.g., Coyle‐Shapiro, Morrow, Richardson, & Dunn, ; Fulmer & Gelfand, ; Tremblay, Cloutier, Simard, Chenevert, & Vandenberghe, ; Whitener, ). In addition, trust in the employer enhances the effectiveness of high‐performance work practices by moderating the effects of these HR practices on justice perceptions and feelings of commitment (Alfes, Shantz, & Truss, ).…”

“…Here, we distinguish employees’ interpersonal trust from their trust in the organization, and extend the examination of the role of control to employees’ trust in their employing organization. This responds to calls for greater specificity in the referent of trust (Fulmer & Gelfand, ) and theoretical work arguing that the assumptions for interpersonal trust are not always readily transferable to trust in the organization (Gillespie & Dietz, , p. 142). Trusting an organization entails different types of vulnerabilities, dependencies, and risks than trusting a person.…”