Social Trust Formation in the Workplace: Applying the Job Strain Model to Explain Variations in Social Trust Levels Among Employed Individuals

Abstract

This study applies the job strain model (JDC-S) to social trust to analyse how workplace characteristics influence social trust formation patterns. By defining the ‘workplace’ as consisting of (a) workload, (b) control and (c) social support, the JDC-S model predicts job demands to inversely relate to social trust, whereas job control and social support to positively affect trust among the employed. We utilise the sample of 60,250 respondents from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to operationalise the three components and link them to social trust scores. Our analysis provides strong empirical evidence that the three factors are not only associated with trust among employed individuals, but that their impact is also contingent on the respondents’ sex and age.