The effect of future redeployment on organizational trust

Abstract

᭹This study compares levels of organizational trust and connected variables between two groups of employees from an Australian public health organization. ᭹ One group ( N = 123) is based in a hospital that will close as part of the organization's transformational strategy, and the other group ( N = 152) is based in other hospitals that will remain open. The first group will become redeployed amongst departments in the remaining hospitals. ᭹The relationships between trust, transformational leadership, fairness, perceived organizational support (POS), commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB conscientiousness) and intention to turnover were investigated, in addition to the relative levels of these variables between the two cohorts of employees. ᭹The hypothesis that future redeployment would result in comparatively negative evaluations of organizational trust and associated constructs was not supported, whereas the hypothesis that traditional exchange relationships would be relevant regardless of an employee's situation was partially upheld. ᭹The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

Advancing Organizational Support Theory into the Twenty-First Century World of Work

“…For example, studies have replicated the POSaffective commitment relationship in diverse samples including Canadian employees (Aubé et al 2007;Lapalme et al 2009;Quenneville et al 2010) and military service members (Dobreva-Martinova et al 2002), temporary workers in Belgium (Camerman et al 2007), Korean employees (e.g., Lee and Peccei 2007;Yoon and Thye 2002), contracting-organization employees in the United Kingdom (Coyle-Shapiro and Morrow 2006), attorneys in Hong Kong (Loi et al 2006), university faculty members (Van Knippenberg and Sleebos 2006) in the Netherlands, employees in China (e.g., Chen et al 2005;Hui et al 2004), employees in Taiwan (Chiu et al 2005), pharmaceutical sales representatives in India (Moideenkutty et al 2001), Australian hospital workers (Ferres et al 2005), and alumni from a Belgian University (Stinglhamber and Vandenberghe 2003). In all these studies (and others with similar findings, see Table 1), the relationship between POS and affective commitment to the organization was strong and positive, suggesting that the norm of reciprocity and the influence of POS on employees' organizational commitment generalize globally.…”

Trust in change managers: the role of affect

“…while Ferres et al, (2005) discovered that employees trust in management was related to perceptions of transformational leadership and procedural justice.…”

Between Rocks and Hard Places

“…A cursory search of organizational research in the last 5 years in hospital settings generated a concerning number of published studies done this way, many by well-known scholars (e.g., Benoit-Barné & Cooren, 2009;Bordia, Jones, Gallois, Callan, & DiFonzo, 2006;Coyle-Shapiro, Kessler, & Purcell, 2004;Doorewaard & Brouns, 2003;Ferres, Connell, & Travaglione, 2005;Goodier & Eisenberg, 2006;Grice, Gallois, Jones, Paulsen, & Callen, 2007;Jamal & Baba, 2003;Kaplan & Patel, 2008;Lewis, 2000;Murray & Peyrefitte, 2007;Rooney, Paulson, Callan, Barbant, Gallois & Jones, 2010). Few pay attention to context.…”