Trust building and cooperation in supervisor-subordinate relationships and work units

An organization s success is frequently attributed to heroic leaders. However, organizations will not thrive without employees willingness to cooperate for the benefit of the organization. An employee s ability and willingness to contribute toward the success of the organization are determined by factors such as the psychological importance of the organization, and the employee s position and relationship with other organizational members. The impression and conception of these issues are formed through direct and mediated interactions with other organizational members. This dissertation studies the conditions for cooperation, trust and fairness in the supervisor-subordinate relationship as well as in work groups. From the results of the four sub-studies, a theoretical model was built which depicted the dynamics between these phenomena. The four sub-studies were based on survey data, which were gathered from two Finnish organizations in 2007. One was a restaurant chain and the other a social service provider. Altogether, 285 employees and 40 supervisors were invited to participate in the survey and the final response rates were 66% and 98%, respectively. Validated measures were utilized and two-level models were used in the primary analysis due to the nested data. The first research question asked how the supervisor s trust in a subordinate produces reciprocal trust in the supervisor by the subordinate. Empirical studies on reciprocal trust are rare, although reciprocity is theoretically proposed to be a central element of trust. The results revealed that the supervisor s trust had an influence on the subordinate s reciprocal trust partially through work-related autonomy. Based on the Approach/Inhibition theory of power, it was hypothesized that work-related autonomy facilitates reciprocal trust because it activates the employee s sense of power which, in turn, is related to cognitive and affective processes that are favorable for trust. The results were in line with this hypothesis. The second research question asked whether employees cooperation has an influence on the supervisor s fairness and if so, then why. Previous studies have approached fairness as a motivator of employees cooperation, and the influence has been explained by, among other things, the subordinate s trust in the leader as well as the organization. In this study, the perspective was turned around because knowledge of leaders points of view is still limited. It was found that the supervisor s trust in the subordinate accounted for the positive relationship between a subordinate s cooperation and a supervisor s perceived fairness. This suggests that supervisors justify subordinates unequal treatment by appealing to their trust in their subordinates. The third research question focused on the role of the supervisor s fairness on an employee s trust in coworkers as a collective entity. Trust in a collective entity is suggested to depend on a group member s standing in the group, and fairness, in turn, is suggested to offer standing-related information. In line with the social identity approach, it was proposed that a supervisor s ability to offer standing-related information is dependent on the supervisor s group prototypicality. It was found that a supervisor s perceived group prototypicality moderated the relationship between the supervisor s perceived fairness and trust in coworkers, such that fairness was related to trust only when the supervisor was perceived to be group prototypical. The fourth research question concerned employees motivation to cooperate for the development of the work group. The employee s personal values, work group identification and a sense of power were studied as motivating factors of change-oriented behavior. Based on the social identity approach, it was proposed that on the one hand identification enhances group-directed efforts but that on the other, change-oriented behavior is risky especially for highly identified group members. The results suggested that highly identified employees pursued their personal values (i.e., made suggestions for the development of the work unit) - only when they believed that they had some power and influence in the work unit. These results suggest that the group leader s trust in group members has a significant influence on factors that enhance group members willingness to cooperate for the benefit of the work group. Although results suggested that trust and consequent fairness were earned by cooperating, fair treatment should always be an employee s right and a leader s duty. Further, this study suggests that in order to be willing to trust and to be able to have an influence within the group, the group leader should share psychological membership with other group members. Taken together, this dissertation contributes to the literature by suggesting that trust and cooperation can be facilitated simply by showing trust.

Grantor dc:publisher

Helsingin yliopisto

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Seppälä, Tuija

• sosiaalipsykologia

Statement dc:rights

• Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
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Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10138/34175

OAI record oai:identifier

https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Ahelda.helsinki.fi%3A10138%2F34175