Trust In Senior Management Research Articles

Bullying and harassment: a case of success?

PurposeThis paper aims to examine an attempt by an organisation to address the significant problem of bullying and harassment. In doing so the paper particularly centres on the question of how the relative success of bullying and harassment policies might be measured.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a quantitative longitudinal study of a single organisation.FindingsThe findings revealed that there was a significant reduction in perceptions of bullying in the organisation. The level of trust in senior management, however, was not enhanced as a result of the success.Research limitations/implicationsThe study emphasises the need for further research on measuring the outcomes of bullying and harassment policies and also work is required to further the understanding of trust between senior management and their workforce.Practical implicationsThe paper highlights the importance, and difficulties, in assessing the success of policies such as bullying and harassment. In many respects this paper contains a mixed message for senior managers. Employees may acknowledge the impact of management actions on reducing the level of bullying and harassment but was not associated with a noticeable improvement of trust in senior management.Originality/valueThere is a plethora of literature on understanding the complexities and effects of workplace bullying. The literature, however, is relatively silent on the issue of measuring success of a policy and this paper seeks to contribute discussion on the subject.

Understanding employee cynicism toward change in healthcare contexts

As the healthcare sector continues to go through transformational change, it is important to identify organisational factors that impact on employee attitudes to change. There is limited empirical evidence about the determinants of cynicism toward change, particularly in the healthcare sector environment. In this paper, a model is proposed which identifies three key antecedents of cynicism toward change: change information, involvement with change and trust in senior management. Data were collected from two healthcare sector organisations to test the proposed model. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equations modelling (SEM) suggest that change information, involvement in change processes and trust in senior management influence cynicism toward change. More specifically, evidence is presented which suggests that involvement in change and trust in senior management directly influence cynicism toward change, and that information about change and involvement in change directly influence trust in senior management. Collectively, the antecedent variables accounted for just over 50% of the variance in cynicism toward change. In general terms, the findings will prove helpful to human resource practitioners interested in diagnosing and managing attitudes to change of healthcare employees.

Which reduces IT turnover intention the most: Workplace characteristics or job characteristics?

Studies have shown that positive perceived job characteristics, such as job significance and task autonomy, tend to decrease IT personnel turnover intention. In addition, employee perception of their workplace characteristics may affect turnover. Few studies have examined this. We tested whether workplace characteristics – structural fairness, trust in senior management, employee information sharing, and job security – affected turnover intention as much as did job characteristics. We found that workplace characteristics out-predicted job characteristics. However, this was true only for programmer/analysts. The reverse was true for technical support personnel. Practical implications are discussed.

Trust in senior management in the public sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the important issue of trust in senior management in the public sector. More specifically, the research aims to explore to what extent has there been a downward spiral of trust in public sector senior management in the eyes of their employees in recent years, and whether this trend spans the public sector as a whole.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies from two public sector organisations, which are of very different character. The question being asking of the data is whether a relatively similar percentage of the workforce lacks trust in senior management and whether this is for essentially the same reasons. An attitude survey of the population of both case study organisations was conducted in conjunction with focus groups.FindingsThe findings in the paper revealed two important matters. First, longitudinal data indicates that relative distrust of senior management is enduring and cannot be explained or rationalised by merely a short‐term breakdown of communication. The second conclusion from the data is that although the two case study organisations had dramatically different structural characteristics, histories and workforce compositions, the degree of lack of trust in senior management was remarkably similar both as regards extent and leading cause of this.Practical implicationsThe findings from two very different public sector organisations suggest that there is a persistent lack of trust in senior management. This finding has important implications for managing the workforce as a lack of trust has significant implications for employee attitudes and behaviour.Originality/valueThis paper raises some important concerns with regards to the quality of the employee‐employer relationship in the public sector.

The relationship between trust, attachment, and antisocial work behaviors

Three studies tested hypotheses derived from an integrative social exchange — attachment model suggesting that employees' trust in an organization or its authorities predicts antisocial work behaviors, which should be mediated by the extent to which employees feel attached to the organization and/or its members. Study 1 showed that perceptions of workgroup cohesion mediate the relationship between trust in senior management and antisocial work behaviors. Study 2 suggested that intentions to stay with the organization mediate the relationship between trust in supervisor and antisocial work behaviors. Study 3 found that the relationship between trust in organization and antisocial work behaviors was partially mediated by perceptions of workgroup cohesion. In sum, results provide converging evidence that trust relates to antisocial behaviors indirectly, through feelings of attachment to the organization and its members.

Trust in public-sector senior management

Trust is widely regarded as an important ingredient of organizational effectiveness. Although there is accumulating empirical evidence supporting the important role of trust in organizational contexts, there is limited empirical evidence that focuses on the nature, determinants and influence of trust in senior management. This is particularly true in the public-sector environment. In this paper, based on a review of the literature, we propose a model that identifies key antecedents and consequences of trust in public-sector senior management. We used data collected from two public-sector organizations to identify levels of trust and correlates of trust in senior management. We also conducted a series of regression analyses to identify more clearly the extent to which each of the antecedents influenced trust in senior management and the extent to which trust in senior management influenced each of the consequences. The results suggest that effective organizational communication, procedural justice, organizational support and satisfaction with job security predict trust in public-sector senior management. The results also show that trust in senior management influences affective commitment, continuance commitment, cynicism towards change and turnover intention. Evidence was presented which suggests that trust partially, rather than fully, mediates the relationships between the antecedents of trust and the consequences of trust. In general terms, the findings will prove helpful to human resource practitioners interested in diagnosing and managing trust in public-sector organizations.

The links between absenteeism and commitment during downsizing

Reports results of research into commitment levels and absenteeism among employees at Westrail, the Western Australian Government Railway. Suggests that high absenteeism is associated mainly with a group of people who have submitted expressions of interest in severance benefits. Absenteeism rates correlated negatively with measures of commitment to work itself and to the organisation. Seems likely that lower commitment to work leads to higher absenteeism. Commitment measures correlated with attitudes to change and communications, past achievement of personal goals, expectation of achieving career goals, trust in senior management and propensity to stay with the organisation. Makes suggestions for strategies to contain the incidence and rate of absenteeism.