Building organizational trust in a low‐trust societal context

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to explore the interrelations between organizational trust and ethics management tools as well as ethical organizational practices in a post‐socialist context.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual framework of the interrelations among organizational trust, ethics management tools and ethical organizational practices is reasoned and the interrelations among the variables are explored using quantitative methods of data analysis. The method of data gathering is a questionnaire survey that was carried out in Lithuania which is taken as an example of a post‐socialist society where trust is rather low. In total, answers from 519 respondents were collected.FindingsThe empirical findings confirm the interdependence of the variables. A significant dependence of organizational trust on ethical organizational practices has been established.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings imply that ethics management tools just weakly predict emergence of organizational trust in the organizations operating in a post‐socialist context. Rather, organizational practices which integrate ethical principles are considerably more important to building organizational trust. This is a peculiarity of a post‐socialist context where people were used to the relativity of the declared values and ideas, therefore, tend to search for evidence of value realization in practice. However, since post‐socialist societies differ in their socio‐historical past, this claim is not a generalization.Practical implicationsThe paper provides managerial implications how to advance organizational trust in a post‐socialist context.Originality/valueThe research paper provides empirical evidence on the interrelations among organizational trust, ethics management tools and ethical organizational practices, which is scarce in the existing literature on organizational trust. In particular, neither the interrelation between ethics management tools and organizational trust nor a combined effect of ethics management tools and ethical organizational practices on organizational trust has been empirically tested. Thus, the paper fills in this gap in the related literature.

The Mediating Role of Leadership Relationship in Building Organisational Trust on Ethical Culture of an Organisation

“…In this respect, organisation's ethics code may be signalling even to new employees that the organisation may be worth trusting and induce trust. The studies by Pu tait et al (2010a;2010b) demonstrate that employees of multinational organisations which are reputable as employers and have corporate social responsibility programmes and/or ethics codes, developed affective trust first and later rationalised it. However, in public organisations, ethical culture of an organisation could induce cognitive trust first as these organisations are much more bureaucratic compared to private organisations; their activities and management practices are much more standardized and therefore ethical culture of an organisation may be perceived as a regulatory mechanism, which appeals to rational judgement rather than emotions.…”

“…Prior research in this context (Pu tait et al, 2010a) found organisational trust to depend on human resource management (HRM) practices that are based on the principles of fairness and justice as well as employee participation in decisionmaking and open communication. Another study on the effects of ethics management tools such as ethics codes, ethics training, ethics auditing etc.…”

“…Another study on the effects of ethics management tools such as ethics codes, ethics training, ethics auditing etc. in Lithuanian organisations (Pu tait and Lämsä, 2008b;Pu tait et al, 2010a) indicated that the explanatory power of ethics management tools in relation to organisational trust is weak. Besides, post-soviet societies are characterised by a tendency to take documented ethical norms as relativistic conventions (Ryan, 2006;Ungvari-Zrinyi, 2001;Vasiljevien and Freitakien , 2002).…”

Does it Pay to Be Ethical? Examining the Relationship Between Organisations’ Ethical Culture and Innovativeness

“…Original article 4 Does it pay to be ethical? Examining the relationship between organisations´ ethical culture and innovativeness minimum level of responsibility (Carroll, 1991) but these formal standards cannot in themselves ensure ethical behaviour (Pučėtaitė et al, 2010). This being the case, the organisation's own culture has an important role to play in creating and improving ethical behaviour and in concretising the ethical values of the organisation (Sinclair 1993).…”

The ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness

“…Legal regulations define a minimum level of responsibilities for which organisations can be held accountable (Carroll, 1991) but they are limited as a guide to ethical behaviour, for example, due to their backward orientation. Value statements and codes of conduct for their part are often rather general expressions and could even be considered quite meaningless declarations unconnected to organisational practices (Pučėtaitė et al, 2010). Therefore the potential of an organisation's own culture for creating and improving ethics is important (Sinclair, 1993).…”