A cross‐cultural study of coworker trust

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between an employee's trust of coworkers and that employee's enterprising behavior. The extent to which cultural dimensions, in‐group collectivism and power distance, moderate the trust‐behavior relationship is considered.Design/methodology/approachA rigorous research methodology was employed to minimize potential problems with common method variance. Trust ratings were provided by 135 US, 203 Turkish, 100 Polish, and 86 Russian focal employees. Their 524 coworkers provided enterprising behavior ratings for these focal employees.FindingsThe results show that both cognitive‐ and affect‐based trusts of coworkers is associated with enterprising behavior. The findings also indicate that the affect‐based trust/enterprising behavior relationship is stronger in higher power distance cultures than in lower power distance cultures. In‐group collectivism, however, does not moderate the trust enterprising behavior relationships.Originality/valueTrust is thought to nurture enterprising behavior in the workplace. This study looks at the relationship between trust of coworkers and enterprising behavior, an under investigated but key behavior in the modern organization. The moderating role of power distance implies that organizational interventions promoting affect‐based trust in coworker relationships may have bigger payoffs as far as behavior change in the high‐power distance context than in the low.