Contents
Title
Predictors of Organizational Trust: The Dynamic Relationship Between Organizational Trust, Organizational Identification and Cultural Intelligence
Author
Catalina Diana Dumitru
Classification JEL
D23
Abstract
Researchers in the field of business ethics have assumed organizational trust as the connecting puzzle piece between organizational theory and philosophical ethics (Hosmer, 1995). Organizational identification has gained a lot of momentum in the attempt to explain how trust emerges and develops within organizations (Ashforth & Mael 1989). However there is scarce empirical evidence suggesting whether there is an association between organizational trust and organizational identification across multiple organizational levels. Using the framework of social identity theory, this research aims to illustrate the dynamic relationship between trust and identification within organizations and present a model of the predictors of organizational trust. Employing a quantitative research design and using a large student sample (N=222), this study issued cross-sectional surveys to measure organizational trust, organizational identification, team trust, and team identification while controlling for the effects of team size, team type, age, gender and culture. The results of the multiple regression analysis show a significant relationship between the predictors and the outcome variable, organizational trust (r2=.54, p<.05). The findings support a predictive model of organizational trust and of its importance to the functioning of teams and organizations. Organizational trust appears strongly related to team member’s attitudes towards the organization. These results have extensive implications for human resources departments, for managing teams, fostering trust and organizational identification within organizations, thus ultimately improving organizational performance.
Keywords
organizational trust, organizational identification, business ethics.
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