High Levels Of Interpersonal Trust Research Articles

High subjective socioeconomic status positively predicts the willingness to disclose privacy

In the digital era, consumers' information has become a vital marketing asset. Despite the potential risks associated with compromising privacy, some consumers willingly permit companies to collect their data. As consumers with more resources may face more significant consequences if their privacy is compromised, it is important to understand the privacy disclosure intent of consumers with high socioeconomic status. We conducted two studies, in the United States (n = 284) and China (n = 303). We found that high subjective (but not objective) socioeconomic status positively predicted participants' tendency to report their personal information in the consumer survey, with this relationship being mediated by higher levels of interpersonal trust. This is the first study to examine the relationship between subjective socioeconomic status and personal information disclosure. As such, it contributes to expanding existing research domains while also offering valuable insights into marketing strategies aimed at safeguarding consumer privacy.

Психологічні особливості міжособистісної довіри майбутніх психологів

The article analyses the results of the study of interpersonal trust among students. It was determined that interpersonal trust is viewed ambiguously by Ukrainian and foreign scientists. National scientists indicate the importance of interpersonal trust in the formation of partnership relations, conflict-free interpersonal interaction. Foreign studies emphasize the social nature of interpersonal trust, which is manifested only in the relationship of an individual. Structural components of interpersonal trust are cognitive, emotional and behavioural. Emphasis is placed on the socio-psychological and personal characteristics of subjects of interpersonal trust. It is noted that the level of subjective control, sociability, optimism, tolerance, reliability, the level of the individual's trust in himself, and his psycho-emotional state belong to the personal factors that influence the willingness of the individual to trust. The study was conducted on the basis of Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University. 79 freshmen took part in it. It has been empirically determined that first-year students of future psychologists have a significantly lower level of interpersonal trust than average. The level of self-confidence tends to be average, the external level of the locus of control prevails. The most dissatisfied areas are personal achievements, health, the quality of communication with loved ones, internal and external support, and the ability to self-control. Factor analysis made it possible to single out four factors (psychological well-being, internality in learning, achievement, self-realization), which, in our opinion, reflect different aspects of interpersonal trust in first-year students of future psychologists. The conducted research allows us to state that students who experience psychological well-being, are responsible, are focused on their own strengths, take responsibility for successes and failures in learning, are focused on achievements and self-realization, have a higher level of interpersonal trust.

Factors affecting social phobia among Chinese college students in the context of COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.

Social phobia (SP) refers to excessive anxiety about social interactions. College students, with their exposure to academic, familial, and job-related pressures, are an ideal population for early screening and intervention of social phobia. Additionally, COVID-19 prevention measures including keeping social distance may further impact social phobia. This study aims to investigate the influencing factors of social phobia among Chinese college students and to tentatively explore the impact of COVID-19 prevention measures on social phobia. Respondents were recruited through Chinese Internet social platforms for an online survey. College students' social phobia scores in pre- and early-COVID-19 periods were measured using Peters' short form of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale (SIAS-6/SPS-6). Demographic information, family information, social relations, self-evaluation, and subjective feelings regarding the impact of COVID-19 preventive measures on social phobia were collected. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors. A total of 1859 valid questionnaires were collected, revealing that the social phobia scores increased from 12.3 ± 11.9 to 13.4 ± 11.9 between pre- and early-COVID-19 periods, with an increase of 1.0 ± 6.4 (p < 0.001). Low GPA rank, mobile phone dependence, distant family relationships, indulgent parents, childhood adversity, and childhood bullying were risk factors for social phobia among Chinese college students. Female gender, being a senior university student or postgraduate, satisfaction with physical appearance, self-reported good mental health and high level of interpersonal trust were protective factors for social phobia. Although most respondents believed that COVID-19 prevention measures (e.g., mask wearing and social distancing rules) reduced their social phobia, these measures were not significantly associated with social phobia levels in the multivariable analyses. In conclusion, Chinese college students' social phobia was widely influenced by diverse factors and warrants increased attention, with early intervention aimed at high-risk individuals being crucial for their mental health. Additional research is necessary to understand the impact of COVID-19 preventive measures on social phobia among college students.

Trusting strangers: The benefits of reciprocal self-disclosure during online computer-mediated communication and mediating role of interpersonal liking.

Reciprocal self-disclosure has reportedly been associated with increased interpersonal trust. However, existing research mainly focuses on online disclosure between acquaintances and overlooks the types of reciprocal disclosure, especially in the initial interactions between strangers communicating online. This study aimed to investigate how three types of reciprocal self-disclosure (turn-taking reciprocity, extended reciprocity and non-reciprocity) contribute to trust and the mechanism of positive interpersonal liking, and whether any effect was instant and stable or increased across two interactions during computer-mediated communication (CMC). Participants were assigned to one of the three reciprocal disclosure conditions and engaged in online interactions. Self-reported and behavioural results demonstrated higher levels of interpersonal trust and liking in the second interaction phase than in the first across all conditions. The turn-taking reciprocity condition showed higher interpersonal trust than did the extended condition, and higher interpersonal liking than did the extended and non-reciprocity conditions; this effect was apparent in both interactions. These findings help us understand the relationship between online self-disclosure and interpersonal trust, suggesting that certain patterns of communication with strangers (e.g., turn-taking reciprocity) may foster more positive social outcomes during CMC over time, while demonstrating the importance of immediacy in synchronous conversations.

Determinants of trust in times of crises: A cross-sectional study of 3,065 German-speaking adults from the D-A-CH region.

Interpersonal trust declined worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic; strategies are needed to restore it. We surveyed 3,065 quota-sampled German-speaking adults residing in the D-A-CH region. Using multinomial logistic regression models and backward elimination for variable selection, we calculated multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) to appraise correlates of interpersonal trust using the Interpersonal Trust Short Scale (KUSIV3). Participants with high levels of interpersonal trust (top KUSIV3 tertile (T3)) tended to be older, male, residents of Switzerland, university degree holders, and workers with higher income and work satisfaction (all Pdiff<0.01) compared to those in the lowest KUSIV3 tertile (T1). Optimism was most strongly associated with high interpersonal trust (ORT3vsT1 = 5.75, 95%CI = 4.33-7.64). Also significantly associated with high interpersonal trust were: Having voted in the last national election (for the opposition, OR = 1.39, 95%CI = 1.02-1.89 or the governing party, OR = 1.61, 95%CI = 1.23-2.11) versus non-voters; perspective taking (ORT3vsT1 = 1.46, 95%CI = 1.11-1.91); being more extraverted (ORT3vsT1 = 1.99, 95%CI = 1.53-2.59) and more agreeable (ORT3vsT1 = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.46-2.61); and scoring higher on complexity thinking (ORT3vsT1 = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.01-1.72). Participants scoring significantly lower for interpersonal trust did not regularly participate in religious meetings (OR = 0.61, 95%CI = 0.44-0.84, versus participation at least monthly); were more conscientious (ORT3vsT1 = 0.68, 95%CI = 0.51-0.91) or current smokers (OR = 0.68; 95%CI = 0.53-0.87, versus never smoking); had sleep problems >5 times a week (OR = 0.48; 95%CI = 0.36-0.66, versus none); and scored high on conspiracy belief (ORT3vsT1 = 0.53; 95%CI = 0.41-0.69). Results differed minimally by gender and country. These findings may be helpful in devising targeted strategies to strengthen interpersonal trust and social engagement in European societies, especially during times of crises.

Social media trust predicts lower COVID-19 vaccination rates and higher excess mortality over 2 years.

Trust plays a crucial role in implementing public health interventions against the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the prospective associations of interpersonal, institutional, and media trust with vaccination rates and excess mortality over time in two multinational studies. In study 1, we investigated the country-level relationships between interpersonal trust, vaccination rates, and excess mortality across 54 countries. Interpersonal trust at the country level was calculated by aggregating data of 80,317 participants from the World Values Survey in 2017-20. Data on vaccination rates and excess mortality were obtained from the World Health Organization. Our findings indicated that higher levels of interpersonal trust were linked to higher vaccination rates and lower excess mortality rates in both 2020 and 2021. In study 2, we collected data from 18,171 adults in 35 countries/societies, stratified by age, gender, and region of residence. At the country/society level, interpersonal trust and trust in local healthcare facilities, local healthcare services, and healthcare professionals were associated with higher vaccination rates and lower excess mortality, whereas social media trust was associated with lower vaccination rates and higher excess mortality across three time points over 2 years. Our findings are robust when controlling for country-level covariates of the government stringency index, population density, and medical resources (i.e. critical care beds) in both studies.

Globalisation and trust in Europe between 2002 and 2018

Are institutional trust and interpersonal trust threatened by globalisation? For nineteen countries in Europe, using a fixed effects model for a panel data set relating globalisation to several economic and social macro variables, like income inequality and diversity, to average institutional and interpersonal trust derived from responses in European Social Surveys, we do not find any significant relation between the relatively moderate globalisation of the first two decades of the 21st century on average interpersonal and institutional trust. At the same time, occurrences of economic decline in a country are negatively related to institutional trust. GDP has a positive effect on both institutional and interpersonal.Combining the macro factors with the individual traits of respondents using pooled repeated cross-sectional data demonstrate the dominance of personal characteristics in individual levels of trust, with only institutional quality emerging as a macro variable which is significantly and positively related to trust, especially for the Socio-Economic Groups 3 to 7 (of the eight groups distinguished). Those who are born in the country exhibit higher levels of interpersonal trust, in particular in the higher SES groups 4–7, but show significantly lower institutional trust for the SES groups 0–2. Age is negatively related to institutional trust for all SES groups, but positively related to interpersonal trust for SES groups 4–7.These findings appear to imply that those who are concerned with the level of institutional trust in the population as a basic requirement for democracy in Europe should focus on the quality of institutions and not on globalisation.

Trust Dynamics of Community Health Workers in Frontier Food Banks and Pantries: a Qualitative Study.

Medical mistrust has had devastating consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in rural communities. Community Health Workers (CHWs) have been shown to build trust, but there is little research on trust-building by CHWs in rural communities. This study aims to understand the strategies that CHWs use to build trust with participants of health screenings in frontier Idaho. This is a qualitative study based on in-person, semi-structured interviews. We interviewed CHWs (N=6) and coordinators of food distribution sites (FDSs; e.g., food banks and pantries) where CHWs hosted a health screening (N=15). Interviews were conducted with CHWs and FDS coordinators during FDS-based health screenings. Interview guides were initially designed to assess facilitators and barriers to health screenings. Trust and mistrust emerged as dominant themes that determined nearly every aspect of the FDS-CHW collaboration, and thus became the focus of interviews. CHWs encountered high levels of interpersonal trust, but low institutional and generalized trust, among the coordinators and clients of rural FDSs. When working to reach FDS clients, CHWs anticipated confronting mistrust due to their association with the healthcare system and government, especially if CHWs were perceived as "outsiders." Hosting health screenings at FDSs, which were trusted community organizations, was important for CHWs to begin building trust with FDS clients. CHWs also volunteered at FDS locations to build interpersonal trust before hosting health screenings. Interviewees agreed that trust building was a time- and resource-intensive process. CHWs build interpersonal trust with high-risk rural residents, and should be integral parts of trust building initiatives in rural areas. FDSs are vital partners in reaching low-trust populations, and may provide an especially promising environment to reach some rural community members. It is unclear whether trust in individual CHWs also extends to the broader healthcare system.

Sense of Loneliness, Sense of Effectiveness, Interpersonal Trust and Interpersonal Relations of Academic Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The article aims to present the levels of the sense of loneliness, sense of effectiveness and interpersonal trust presented by academic youth and to demonstrate their importance for the subjective assessment of the quality of interpersonal relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents the results of empirical research conducted with the participation of 2,285 respondents studying in a full-time mode in Poland. The research material was collected using an online questionnaire (CAWI) and subjected to statistical analysis (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, V-Cramer coefficient, chi-square test, Student’s t-test, one-way ANOVA and Levene’s test were used). The survey questionnaire used the De Jong Gierveld (DJGLS) Loneliness Scale in the Polish adaptation, the scale to measure interpersonal trust by Dorota Hybiak and the scale to measure the sense of effectiveness by Krystyna Skarżyńska. The results obtained show a statistically significant correlation, with the respondents showing a higher sense of effectiveness, a lower level of loneliness and a higher level of interpersonal trust, and higher subjective satisfaction with interpersonal relationships experienced during a pandemic. These research categories can therefore be considered as protective factors in a pandemic situation and as factors of “hope” for the rebuilding of interpersonal contacts in a post-pandemic reality.

Cultural Intelligence and Interpersonal Trust as Drivers for Innovative Work and Intellectual Capital Development at Organizations

The main purpose of this study is to determine how cultural intelligence and interpersonal trust impact innovative work behaviour and intellectual capital development in organizations. Research conducted by various authors shows that managers with higher levels of cultural intelligence have higher levels of interpersonal trust. As a result, they are more flexible in the adoption and creation of new ideas and solutions. Most of them are not afraid to share their knowledge and experience by accepting different opinions and creating an appropriate organizational culture. It enables an opportunity to strengthen all elements of intellectual capital and facilitates the competitiveness of the organization. Cultural intelligence and interpersonal trust create opportunities for innovative behaviour in organizations by developing intellectual capital. The scientific literature presents various studies about cultural intelligence and its impact on organizational performance. Most of the studies focused on the integration of migrants into the organizations’ work. Currently, the working environment is cross-cultural, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and considering globalization and digitalization issues. Despite the various benefits of working in a multicultural environment, there are some significant challenges organizations face, such as interpersonal trust development and cultural intelligence. The current study focused on local employees at organizations: 93 managers of higher education institutions from Latvia were interviewed. The author used qualitative and quantitative research methods for data collection and analysis. Semistructured interviews were used for data collection. The research tool was developed on the basis of scientific literature using different statements about interpersonal trust, work engagement and level of cultural intelligence. One of the significant results found during research is that managers with international experience (working or studying abroad) are more critical of working in international teams and building interpersonal trust within cross-cultural teams. This fact could be the research object in future research. The research results can be used for future research exploring factors influencing cultural intelligence development in cross-cultural organizations and its role in innovation development and intellectual capital management.

Interinfluence of various types of trust in Russian society

The article is devoted to assessing the level of various types of trust in modern Russian society. The study is based on a sociological survey. As trust largely determines the ability of the socio-economic system to be resilient and adapt to shocks; so its influence can have an ambiguous effect on the state of the community, the relevance of the work is evident. The aim of the study is to analyze the level of four types of trust (interpersonal, generalized, institutional and political) in modern Russian society and to study the relationship between them. The authors analyzed the respondents&amp;apos; answers to four groups of questions corresponding to four types of trust and made conclusions about the presence or absence of a general trend in the distribution of answers. It was found that within the sample, high level of interpersonal trust demonstrated by respondents is combined with a relatively low level of generalized trust and low levels of political and institutional trust. The assumptions concerning the factors that influenced respondents’ perceptions of various types of questions and the distribution of the responses were made. Finally, the authors made substantive and technical conclusions about the results of the sociological survey. The research does not provide the grounds for the final conclusions concerning the level of various types of trust in the Russian society. However, it clearly demonstrates a significant differentiation between them as well as contradictions in the respondents’ assessment of hypothetical and real situations.

National resilience in Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine created major challenges for this country. As yet however few studies have examined perceptions of national resilience during a period of conflict. We collected online data from across Ukraine during April 2022 (N = 2000) assessing key demographics, national resilience, interpersonal trust, subjective trauma, income change, loss of relatives and coping with health risk. Findings suggested that national resilience could be assessed in this setting using a unifactorial scale. National resilience was high, particularly amongst the young, those with high levels of interpersonal trust, lived in Ukrainian-speaking areas, were not displaced, and felt able to ‘bounce back’ from health threats or hardships. Policy makers need to encourage interpersonal trust and provide appropriate support to older and less mobile populations and those in Russian-speaking areas to ensure continued resilience at a time of national threat.

The enabling and constraining connections between trust and digitalisation in incumbent value chains

Digitalisation is a disruptive socio-technical process that goes beyond digital technologies and their use within an organisation, and involves besides (in many cases radical) technological change, social, institutional and economic change. This creates uncertainties for value chain actors and the trust relationships between them. In this paper we aim to understand the connections between trust and digitalisation. We investigate how trust relations affect digitalisation, and how digitalisation affects trust relations among value chain actors, using the Dutch flower sector as a case study. Our findings show that the sector has a high level of interpersonal trust, but limited institutional trust, as the relationships between companies are highly competitive and transactional. In this context, limited trust hinders digitalisation in multiple and mutually reinforcing ways, inducing a vicious cycle whereby existing distrust or limited trust results in limited digitalisation, which in turn causes more distrust due to uncertainties around the digitalisation process, further increased by existing (technological) path dependencies. Hence there is a need for 1) awareness of mutually reinforcing (dis)trust dynamics and vicious (or virtuous) cycles in relation to digitalisation are needed; 2) higher levels of understanding of what digitalisation entails and 3) joint strategy building and foresighting in the value chain.

MASTERING AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP: A FOUNDATIONAL QUALITY FOR WORKING TOGETHER

AbstractDowden contends that leaders must “possess an advanced level of understanding of our minds and our hearts.” To do this, they must be authentic. He references a 2008 Journal of Management article covering “four distinct, yet overlapping, elements”: self‐awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and internalized moral perspective. He draws on research that it was the “strongest predictor of job satisfaction for employees. It also had positive impacts on overall attitudes toward work and happiness.” He notes that it also increases employee innovation and that authentic leaders “inspired significantly higher levels of interpersonal trust between themselves and their direct reports, which also increased levels of work engagement.” He relates leadership conversations with Alan Mulally, the former CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Ford Motor Company, who “leveraged and implemented his “Working Together”© Principles, Practices, and Management System to drive exceptional results and high employee engagement in two of the largest and most globally recognized companies.” Dowden also outlines five leadership practices, which in his words are: #1 Show and tell people who you are and confirm with them that they see you that way. #2 Create expected behaviors. #3 Authenticity equals consistency. #4 Embrace the power of operating without a safety net. #5 Authenticity applies to context as well as people.

Professional or Interpersonal Trust? Effect of Social Network on the Intention to Undergo Cosmetic Procedures

The purpose of this article is to explore the influence of friendship and medical advice networks on customers’ intention to undergo cosmetic procedures and its relationship to the role of professional and interpersonal trust in seeking cosmetic information. We propose that both interpersonal and professional trust play a mediating role in medical cosmetic information-seeking behaviors. In doing so, a purposive sampling of 289 customers from 21 cosmetic clinics was surveyed while all these customers received medical cosmetics treatment. The empirical analysis has shown that customers who are central to the friendship network have a high level of interpersonal trust, which positively mediates the relationship between friendship networks and their decisions to adopt cosmetic procedures. Our findings suggest that the understanding of friendship and advice networks enables us to explore the explicit details of how customers exchange information related to cosmetic surgery. Finally, our findings also made practical contributions, while the counseling service of medical clinic is required to take not only professional but also interpersonal trust into consideration.

Trust levels within categories of information and communication technology companies.

The arguable claims of levels of trust in politics and business situations motivated this study, which investigates the degree of trust within micro, small, and medium categories of Hungarian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies. Different sizes of companies have varying interactions between internal members and their business partners. This study concentrated on exploring Hungarian ICT companies due to their significant role in supporting Industry 4.0. The study population are active Hungarian ICT companies. This research implemented random cluster selection related to the location of ICT firms. It exploited 100 samples, including micro, small, and medium-sized companies, and implemented discriminant analysis to examine the description and hypotheses. First, this study found that the level of trust in institutions within micro, small, and medium-sized companies varies significantly. The level of trust in institutions proliferates within corporations due to the capability of the formal institution to provide fair public services. This research additionally underlined that the performance of the Hungarian government would improve trust amongst the companies. Second, this study concluded that the level of interpersonal trust within three categories of companies was similar. A high level of interpersonal trust would expand internal engagement among the members of companies. Finally, the level of trust in business partners varied significantly within the distinct sizes of Hungarian ICT companies. A high level of trust in corporate associates improves business collaboration, reduces uncertainty, and supports long-term business connections. Levels of institutional trust and inter-organizational trust differed amongst different categories of companies. However, the level of interpersonal trust remained similar within companies of the various sizes.

Psychosocial Factors Predict the Level of Aggression of People with Drug Addiction: A Machine Learning Approach

ABSTRACT This study aimed to identify the relevant psychosocial factors that can predict the aggression in people with drug addiction. A total of 896 male participants (Mean age = 38.30 years) completed the survey. Gradient boosting regression, a machine learning algorithm, was used to find the relevant psychosocial variables, such as psychological security, psychological capital, interpersonal trust and alexithymia, that may be significantly related to aggressive behavior. Results showed that the five most important factors in the prediction of aggression are interpersonal trust, psychological security, psychological capital, parental conflict and alexithymia. A high level of interpersonal trust, psychological security and psychological capital can predict a low level of aggression in people with drug addiction, while a high level of parental conflict and alexithymia can predict a high level of aggression. Overall, the findings highlight the need to focus interventions according to the relation between these psychosocial factors and aggression in order to decrease violence.

ВЗАЄМОЗВ'ЯЗОК МІЖ КУЛЬТУРОЮ ПРАЦІ ТА ПОВЕДІНКОЮ НА РОБОТІ: КРОС-КУЛЬТУРНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The increase in the scale of economic activity in the process of expanded reproduction and development, the intensive use of factors of production lead to an exacerbation of not only socio-economic contradictions but also sharply raise the question of the need to solve the qualitative problems of economic growth. In order to form modern thinking as a prerequisite for the formation of a “road map” to ensure sustainable development, the authors revealed the nature of such a phenomenon today as the culture of labor. Which in the future allows to produce both new opportunities and new constraints and challenges in the field of social and labor development. The culture of work affects the general and individual economic behavior, for example, the propensity to entrepreneurship and willingness to delegate authority to subordinates. Trusting people are more likely to become entrepreneurs. At the same time, a high level of interpersonal trust increases their chances of being deceived, and a low level threatens to lose profits. Trusting business leaders give creative freedom to subordinates by delegating authority to them, while low-trust managers, on the other hand, try to keep power in their hands. As a result, there will be contradictions between formal, quantitative, and substantive indicators, spiritual motives and values, the inequality of the dominant parameters of the culture of labor in different sectors of the economy. That is why the study of the impact of cross-cultural aspects in management processes is becoming increasingly important. The article is devoted to the study of the system of influence of personal aspects of human development related to ethnicity, national culture, customs, traditions, etc., on behavior in a homogeneous environment. The mechanisms of formation of cross-cultural interaction of all participants of the management process are highlighted and the role of individual human characteristics in the process of economic activity is revealed. The necessity of introduction of measures of formation of successful organizational culture in the activity of subjects of managing is characterized.

The Effect of Organizational Trust on Employee’s Performance through Organizational Commitment as a Mediating Variable (Applied Study on Mobile Phone Companies in Egypt)

The purpose of paper is to explore the role of the organizational commitment as a mediating variable between organizational trust and employee’s performance in these organizations, and also the paper aims to review the concept of Organizational Commitment, concept of organizational trust and employee’s performance in service business organizations. In order to achieve the purposes of the study, researcher adopted a descriptive analytical method. The researcher distributed 450 questionnaires, and the return was 404 questionnaires, rating 89.77% of the distributed questionnaires. Analyzing data was conducted using a set of statistical methods including a normality test along with Cronbach’s alpha, standard deviation, confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, multiple and simple linear regression using SPSS-V26 and AMOS-V26. The study reached a set of results, the most important of which are: 1) There is a statistically impact at significant level (α ≤ 0.05) of organizational trust on employee’s performance through the Organizational Commitment as a mediating variable in Mobile phone companies in Egypt. 2) There is a significant correlation between Organizational Commitment and organizational trust, and also there is a significant correlation between organizational trust and employee’s performance, and finally there is a significant correlation between organizational commitment and employee’s performance. The study reached a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: 1) Organizations need high level of interpersonal trust among the co-workers in organization, for successful feedback and observation of advanced organizational behavior. 2) Attention of top management and decision makers of organizations to take measures to enhance employees’ performance through increased commitment level, whereas improved employee performance result is the aim for every organization.

Trust, Coordination and Multi-level Arrangements: Lessons for a European Health Union

In the wake of the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, the Swedish and Swiss governments adopted a similar policy approach. They enacted mostly non-binding measures to contain the epidemic, relying on the high level of interpersonal trust and trust in political institutions that exist in both of these (broadly comparable) countries to ensure compliance. However, unlike Sweden’s strategy, the Swiss policy response evolved during the early weeks of the “first wave”, achieving public health and socioeconomic results that have been considered as satisfactory, notwithstanding the complex institutional setting and policy process, the central location of Switzerland in continental Europe, its openness and its closeness with deeply affected regions in Italy and France. To shed light on this policy response and to draw lessons from it, this paper firstly discusses the role played by the new Swiss Epidemics Act. This law centralises decision-making capacity at the federal level and expands the competences of the central government, while leaving leeway to subnational units for implementation and recognising the need for increased international regulatory cooperation. Secondly, it shows how such a solution – a multi-level arrangement steered from the federal level with quite strong vertical and horizontal coordination mechanisms – could work as a blueprint for a European Health Union.