Studying Interorganizational Trust in Public Administration

Abstract

Interorganizational trust is a crucial but understudied topic in public administration research. This article consolidates the relevant literature and identifies the conceptual building blocks required to study interorganizational trust and distrust as specific phenomena. The authors argue that trust and distrust both have functionalities and dysfunctionalities for interorganizational interactions in public administration, and discuss the dimensions and sources of interorganizational trust and distrust in such interactions. The article consolidates these discussions in the concept of administrational trust, "a subjective evaluation made by boundary spanners regarding their intentional and behavioral suspension of vulnerability on the basis of expectations of a trustee organization in particular interorganizational interactions in public administration." The authors construct and present a framework for analysis of the mechanisms of administrational trust and distrust, and argue that it also allows the development of management strategies to optimize interorganizational trust-distrust distributions in order to facilitate, solidify, and increase the performance of interorganizational cooperation in public administration.