Time perspective as an antecedent of trust in a manager and its impact on employee attitudes

Abstract

A manager’s personality has been demonstrated to have an influence on employees’ level of trust. However, it has yet to be demonstrated whether trust levels are based, in part, on a manager’s time perspective. In this study a between-subjects scenario-based experimental approach was employed, which involved administration of six different scenarios. Each described a hypothetical manager who exhibited one of six time perspectives: past positive, past negative, present hedonistic, present fatalistic, future oriented, and balanced. Participants (N = 630) rated the extent to which the manager could be trusted and what they believed their attitude would be if they were to work for the individual. Findings revealed that managers who exhibited a past positive, future oriented, or balanced time perspective were perceived to be more trustworthy and had higher ratings of trust than supervisors with a past negative or present fatalistic orientation. A path analysis model further demonstrated that employee perceptions of trustworthiness (an antecedent of trust) covary with time perspective, as did employee attitudes (a trust-linked outcome). This research contributes to the development of theory by shedding light on the way interpersonal perceptions shape employee attitudes. From an applied perspective, the findings suggest interpersonal perceptions influence workers’ attitudes toward their manager and their job.