Abstract
According to previous research, an employee’s trust in his/her leader has been linked to: increased individual efficiency and commitment; increased organizational performance; effective team and organizational functioning where the tasks are complex and unstructured. Considering these findings concerning the positive influence of trust on various aspects of organizational performance, we used relevant theories in literature relating to trust in organizational settings and transformational leadership to devise our research framework that aimed at gaining a better understanding of leadership behaviors leading to higher degrees of trust by followers in their leader. The results of our pilot study in a Romanian small-to medium-sized enterprise show that leader’s behaviors such as enforcing observance of organizational rules, professional objectivity in employee appraisal processes, keeping promises and commitments, fairness, as well as leader’s professional competency are essential for achieving higher degrees of trust in intra-organizational relationships. In assuming the inherent limitations of a pilot case study leading to the necessity to f{0>Dezvoltarea metodologică ulterioară, precum şi realizarea unor studii follow-up cu finanţare suficientă pentru a permite minimizarea erorilor de eşantionare sunt fără îndoială necesare pentru a confirma corelaţia dintre cele două abordări, din perspectiva societăţii „deschise” popperiene.<}0{>Further urther the methodological developments and follow-up studies, our research confirmed obvious relationships between the targeted domains, transformational leadership and trust. Also, our findings confirmed that the trust element in organizational leadership has a critical impact on building long-term employee commitment and drive for achieving higher individual and organizational performance and success.
Highlights
From a behaviorist perspective, leadership means respect, trust, and teamwork
This paper focuses on trust in transformational leadership of intraorganizational relationships
The present study explores trust in an actual manufacturing company in relation to transformational leadership, identified within the organization, in more detail to show how exactly leader behaviors influence the perceptions of their subordinates
Summary
Leadership means respect, trust, and teamwork. A literature review regarding trust revealed Shockley-Zalabak, Ellis, and Cesaria (2000) defined trust as the organization’s willingness, based on its culture and communicational behaviors in relationships and transactions, to be appropriately vulnerable if the organization believes that another individual, group, or organization is competent, open, honest, concerned, reliable, and identifies as having common goals, norms, and values (p.8). Many researchers accentuate trust as important in a range of organizational activities, such as teamwork, leadership, goal setting, performance recognition, and generally in mediation relating to collaborative behavior (e.g., Axelrod, 1984; Gambetta, 1988; Mayer, Davis & Schoorman, 1995; McAllister, 1995). Employee confidence in their leader has been linked to individual results, such as increased productivity and commitment to the organization and greater job satisfaction (Flaherty & Pappas, 2000). Trust in leaders is important for effective team and organizational operations, where the tasks are complex and unstructured and require high levels of interdependence, cooperation, and information sharing (Creed & Miles, 1996; Zand, 1972)
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