Donald L. Ferrin

Trust in Leadership: Meta-Analytic Findings and Implications for Research and Practice

In this study, the authors examined the findings and implications of the research on trust in leadership that has been conducted during the past 4 decades. First, the study provides estimates of the primary relationships between trust in leadership and key outcomes, antecedents, and correlates (k = 106). Second, the study explores how specifying the construct with alternative leadership referents (direct leaders vs. organizational leadership) and definitions (types of trust) results in systematically different relationships between trust in leadership and outcomes and antecedents. Direct leaders (e.g., supervisors) appear to be a particularly important referent of trust. Last, a theoretical framework is offered to provide parsimony to the expansive literature and to clarify the different perspectives on the construct of trust in leadership and its operation.

Trust and Satisfaction, Two Stepping Stones for Successful E-Commerce Relationships: A Longitudinal Exploration

Trust and satisfaction are essential ingredients for successful business relationships in business-to-consumer electronic commerce. Yet there is little research on trust and satisfaction in e-commerce that takes a longitudinal approach. Drawing on three primary bodies of literature, the theory of reasoned action, the extended valence framework, and expectation-confirmation theory, this study synthesizes a model of consumer trust and satisfaction in the context of e-commerce. The model considers not only how consumers formulate their prepurchase decisions, but also how they form their long-term relationships with the same website vendor by comparing their prepurchase expectations to their actual purchase outcome. The results indicate that trust directly and indirectly affects a consumers purchase decision in combination with perceived risk and perceived benefit, and also that trust has a longer term impact on consumer e-loyalty through satisfaction. Thus, this study extends our understanding of consumer Internet transaction behavior as a three-fold (prepurchase, purchase, and postpurchase) process, and it recognizes the crucial, multiple roles that trust plays in this process. Implications for theory and practice as well as limitations and future directions are discussed.

Direct and indirect effects of third-party relationships on interpersonal trust.

Past studies of the determinants of interpersonal trust have focused primarily on how trust forms in isolated dyads. Yet within organizations, trust typically develops between individuals who are embedded in a complex web of existing and potential relationships. In this article, the authors identify 3 alternative ways in which a trustor and trustee may be linked to each other via third parties: network closure (linked via social interactions with third parties), trust transferability (linked via trusted third parties), and structural equivalence (linked via the similarity of their relationships with all potential third parties within the organization). Each of these is argued to influence interpersonal trust via a distinct social mechanism. The authors hypothesized that network closure and structural equivalence would predict interpersonal trust indirectly via their impact on interpersonal organizational citizenship behaviors performed within the interpersonal relationship, whereas trust transferability would predict trust directly. Social network analyses of data gathered from a medium-sized work organization provide substantial support for the hypotheses and also suggest important directions for future research.

Can I Trust You to Trust Me? A Theory of Trust, Monitoring, and Cooperation in Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships

Drawing on the diverse literatures of game theory, negotiation, interpersonal trust, and interorganizational relationships, the authors develop a theoretical model of the relationships among trust, monitoring, and cooperation in interpersonal and intergroup interactions. They use the concept of isomorphism as a basis for developing this theory, observing that although the constructs may differ in structure across levels, they may still have similar functions. They also argue that a more explicit distinction between own and others trust, own and others monitoring, and own and others cooperation is critical for better understanding the relationships among trust, monitoring, and cooperation. By making this distinction between own and other and by drawing on four distinct literatures, the authors provide greater precision in how trust, monitoring, and cooperation are defined, and they provide a more comprehensive and variegated view of the relationships among the constructs through the development of specific research propositions. They conclude with potential contributions of the model for future research and practice.

Silence speaks volumes : The effectiveness of reticence in comparison to apology and denial for responding to integrity-and competence-based trust violations

Prior research on responses to trust violations has focused primarily on the effects of apology and denial. The authors extended this research by studying another type of verbal response that is often used to respond to trust violations but has not been considered in the trust literature: reticence. An accused party may use reticence in a sincere and even legitimate attempt to persuade a trustor to withhold judgment. Yet, by considering information diagnosticity and belief formation mechanisms through which verbal responses influence trust, the authors argue that reticence is a suboptimal response because it combines the least effective elements of apology and denial. Specifically, reticence is a suboptimal response to an integrity violation because, like apology, it fails to address guilt. And reticence is a suboptimal response to a competence violation because, like denial, it fails to signal redemption. Results from 2 laboratory studies, simulating different contexts and using research participants from 2 different countries, provide support for the prediction. The results offer important implications for those who might use reticence to respond to a perceived trust violation and also for those who must judge anothers reticence.

Trust differences across national-societal cultures: Much to do, or much ado about nothing?

Does trust and its development, functions and meaning, differ between people from different national–societal cultures? There is considerable anecdotal evidence and some theoretical argumentation to suggest it does, but are these supported by empirical research? This chapter reviews the available empirical evidence on the effects of national–societal culture on interpersonal trust. It focuses largely on quantitative empirical evidence to consider the extent to which, and the ways in which, interpersonal trust differs across national–societal cultures. In every category of our review we found evidence of cross-cultural differences, particularly on generalized trust, and also evidence of trust universals across cultures. In evaluating these findings, we conclude that trust may operate as a variform universal and variform functional universal. We conclude with two proposed routes for future research, and implications for practice. Introduction To an ever-increasing extent, ‘work’ involves close interaction and cooperation with people who come from a national–societal cultural background different from ones own. This emerging reality of work can be attributed to a number of factors. First, with the unrelenting advance of globalization, more and more organizations are taking a global approach to operations, including the operation of overseas international joint ventures and alliances, working with offshore suppliers and customers, and conducting global searches for talent. Second, the advance of communication technologies such as e-mail and videoconferencing has fostered a movement toward global virtual teams involving individuals from a variety of different cultural backgrounds.

Many Routes toward Trust: A Social Network Analysis of the Determinants of Interpersonal Trust

This article presents a theoretical framework that identifies three aspects of a social relationship that are critical determinants of interpersonal trust, and examines the differentiated roles that these three aspects of a social relationship play in trust development. The study moves beyond the study of unidirectional trust formation in dyadic interpersonal relationships, which has dominated the current literature, to an exploration of reciprocated trust and social-structural routes toward trust. The framework is tested via a social network analysis of relationships among employees of a multi-departmental, white-collar work organization. Ultimately, it is aimed to enrich existing theoretical and empirical knowledge concerning the determinants of interpersonal trust and also bring a social network perspective into interpersonal trust research. The managerial implications of this study are twofold. First, the results should help managers understand how trust forms among their employees. As organizations s...

THE EFFECTS OF TRUST IN LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE, BEHAVIOR, AND ATTITUDES: A META-ANALYSIS.

The idea that trust in leadership has an important effect on employee performance, behavior, and attitudes has been recognized across numerous literatures and disciplines. In this paper, we amass a...

On the institutionalisation of trust research and practice: Heaven awaits!

In this Commentary, I review the progress made by trust scholars toward institutionalising trust research and practice, and also where progress has lagged. I compare the institutionalisation of the trust field to institutionalisation in the leadership, and negotiation & conflict management, fields. I consider factors such as the scale and scope of existing research, recognised relevance to practice, dedicated journals, practitioner and researcher books, established pedagogies, integration of trust into organizational interventions, executive development programmes, and postgraduate and undergraduate business curricula, dedicated Chairs and conferences, established conceptualisations and measures of trust, etc. I conclude that while we have made admirable progress in studying trust as a scientific construct, we have made insufficient progress in applying trust research to practice and teaching, and trust has not yet gained the recognition it needs and deserves in our universities, businesses, governments, and NGOs. I conclude with the hope that academic research on trust continues with the same vigour it has to date, but also that some trust researchers will shift more of their time, effort and resources to trust-related research translations and practice.

Advancing the scientific understanding of trust in the contexts of negotiations and repeated bargaining

Advancing the scientific understanding of trust in the contexts of negotiations and repeated bargaining Dejun Tony Kong, Robert B. Lount Jr, Mara Olekalns and Donald L. Ferrin Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA; Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore