Development of trust in leadership: Exploring a cognitive process model

This thesis explored the cognitive, character-inference process that Dirks & Skarlicki (2004) assert contributes to trust development. Self-reported transformational leadership, leader integrity, organizational justice, and leader prototypicality correlated positively with cognitive trust in this sample of 81 student employees (63% female, mean age 20.5) of a large southeastern university. Leader prototypicality, a cognitive evaluation process, partially mediated the relationship between leader integrity and trust. This study's prime contribution was the longitudinal, empirical test of a model of trust development in interdependent leader-follower dyads. Future research may explore other antecedents of trust, assess how the cognitive process of trust development occurs, or investigate the relationship-based social exchange mechanism Dirks and Skarlicki (2004) suggest contributes to the development of affective trust.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Whitmore, Corrie Baird

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Foti, Roseanne J.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Donovan, John J.
• Hauenstein, Neil M. A.

• Leadership--transformational
• leader integrity
• trust
• Leadership
• cognitive process model
• organizational justice
• leader prototypicality
• cognitive trust

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05102007-134424

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32513