Trust as an organizational knowledge sharing enabler – validation of the impersonal trust scale

Abstract

PurposeContemporary organizations face challenges when they have an increasing need for trust, and yet there are decreasing opportunities for the development of interpersonal trust. Thus, the organizations cannot rely only on that and there is a need for complementary forms of organizational trust. Vanhala et al. (2011) developed the scale for measuring impersonal trust. The purpose of this study is to validate the scale in terms of discriminant and nomological validity as well as to test generalizability.Design/methodology/approachThe validities and generalizability is tested on two samples from two industries in Finland: a forest company (411 respondents) and ICT company (304 respondents). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are used.FindingsThe scale represents both discriminant and nomological validity. Furthermore, the scale is generalizable in different industries.Research limitations/implicationsA more holistic approach to organizational trust is proposed, and the scale for the impersonal element of the organizational trust is validated.Practical implicationsThis paper validates the scale for the less studied impersonal element of organizational trust. To manage and develop organizational trust, all of its dimensions should be measured. The scale validated allows the measurement of the impersonal dimension, and the more refined measure also makes it possible to focus development efforts on certain operational areas.Originality/valueThe scale validated represents a step forward toward the reliable measurement of organizational trust. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study to show that previously developed scale is valid and generalizable.