Influence of Leader Trust on Policy Agreement

Abstract

A s public and private sector organizations continue to undergo transformational change, it is important to identify organizational factors that impact employee behaviors and attitudes to change. One such organizational factor is subordinate trust in the direct leader. Trust can be defined as an attitude held by subordinates toward their managers based upon their perceptions, beliefs, and attributions about their managers' benevolence, reliability, openness, and loyalty derived from their observations of their supervisors' behavior (Butler, 1991). Several researchers have made claim to the importance of trust. For instance, Rotter (1967) concluded that the adaptability of all social groups is dependent upon trust because it affects efficiency and adjustment. Additionally, Brockner, Siegel, Daly, Martin, and Tyler (1997) concluded that a manager's effectiveness depends on the ability to gain the trust of subordinates. In fact, the significance of trust in leadership has been recognized by researchers for at least five decades (e.g.