“…Still, over time, these organisations’ distrust increases, reducing the number of partnerships and their effectiveness (Van Niekerk and Matthias, 2019), creating a challenge for both parties to engender partnerships and collect the expected benefits while building a strong connection between partners (O’Regan and Oster, 2000). The literature about partnerships between NPO and FPO already recognises several constructs as critical for these partnerships developments, such as trust and commitment (Bang et al , 2013; Bilro and Dias, 2022; Loureiro et al , 2018), and also that one of these relationships’ key aspects is the organisations’ employees (Álvarez-González et al , 2017; Seitanidi, 2009). However, EE is still unexplored in this context.…”