The Effect of Demographic Group Congruence and Reporting Relationship Maturity on Trusting Behavior in Employee-Supervisor Dyads

Trust is a central aspect of social interaction, as the successful completion of tasks typically requires depending on others. Contemporary changes in the population structure and ways of working have resulted in both more diverse workforce and increased frequency of novel encounters between employees. When the individual extending their trust (trustor) and the party receiving it (trustee) lack previous interaction history, trust may be formed upon presumptive trust cues, including shared or dissimilar demographic attributes. The facilitating effect of similarity and shared social identities has been demonstrated in numerous contexts, including trust and related elements. Trust, conceptualized as a psychological state of willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of others and containing both cognitive and affective elements, was measured as distinct dimensions of reliance and disclosure related behaviors toward the supervisor. This thesis sought to examine the influence of demographic group congruence based on gender and educational background on employees’ trust in their supervisors, and whether reporting relationship maturity moderated the potential effects. Demographic group congruence was hypothesized to influence trusting behaviors positively, showing a stronger impact in new reporting relationships, particularly regarding reliance. The current study was based on an ongoing longitudinal research project; however, all analyses were confined to Time 1 data (N = 926). The results of regression and interaction analyses indicated that educational background congruence and its interaction with gender congruence was significantly associated with higher reliance ratings. However, this pattern was not observed in disclosure ratings. While not reaching statistical significance, relationship maturity moderated the effects of gender congruence on reliance, with a positive impact in new employee-supervisor dyads, but a negative impact in mature relationships. The findings offered partial support for previous literature and demonstrated a significant interaction between gender and educational background congruence, underscoring the role of intersecting identities on trust. Future research should heed the limitations present in this thesis and consider including additional measures of trust elements and social identification to improve robustness of findings.

Grantor dc:publisher

Helsingin yliopisto

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Rautio, Iina Marja

• trust
• trust formation
• trusting behavior
• group membership
• social identity

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright 1.0

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10138/591268

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/591268