Abstract
Drawing from both trust-building theory and interpersonal trust literature, we investigate how trust between a leader and follower may be leveraged to influence organizational trust. We also explore the mediating mechanisms of this link and test a potential moderator. A cross-sectional, multi-foci design was adopted and participants were 201 employees within a public sector organization. Leader trustworthy behavior was found to predict organizational trust, mediated by trustworthiness perceptions and trust in the leader. Support for the boundary condition was found; namely, when leaders were more senior, the relationship between trustworthy behavior and organizational trust was stronger. The findings suggest that leaders can meaningfully influence organizational trust perceptions through the enactment of trustworthy behavior, although the strength of this effect varied as a function of their position.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 673-686 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Social Psychology |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Early online date | 10 Aug 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2016 |
Bibliographical note
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Legood, A., Thomas, G., & Sacramento, C. (2016). Leader trustworthy behavior and organizational trust: the role of the immediate manager for cultivating trust. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Early online, which has been published in final form at 10.1111/jasp.12394. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Keywords
- trust-building
- organizational trust
- interpersonal trust
- leader position