The research on trust in leadership: The need for context

Abstract

To date, theoretical and empirical research has largely focused on interpersonal forms of trust and trust building at the expense of institutional forms, despite a rich conceptual trust foundation for the latter. Indeed, in order to understand and address widespread failures of trust, not only in business institutions, but also in other central institutions such as healthcare, government, education and religion, we argue that research must begin to integrate institutional factors with interpersonal ones. Moreover, most research to date has neither explicitly nor fully considered the salient role of context, especially those contexts involving high degrees of uncertainty, vulnerability and/or stress that are particularly germane to trust. Utilising a cross-level case study, we discuss how both interpersonal factors and institutional influences, shaped by context, develop both organisational trust and trust in leadership. We also provide several recommendations for future research, and make the case for studying trust by building trust with research subjects. By examining the interplay among interpersonal trust factors and trust-building efforts with institutional factors, we can develop a more complete picture of how trust within organisations (and even across organisations) is developed, sustained, and even rebuilt.