Employee trust repair after organizational change

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the trust-repair practices after organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

Previous research on this topic is limited, so an abductive qualitative research approach was adopted. The data were collected from key informants through focus group discussions and interviews.

Findings

Beyond previous research findings, this study identified that employee trust can be repaired after benevolence-based trust violations by enforcing ethical behavior and fostering managers' emotional intelligence and after competence-based violations by fostering the sense-making process and by involving third parties in trust recovery. In addition, transparent information sharing and strong management actions predict positive trust outcomes in a change context.

Research limitations/implications

This paper makes three key contributions to the literature on organizational trust by (1) identifying trust violations after organizational change, (2) proposing a process model on trust repair and (3) extending understanding of trust repair practices by revealing new elements.

Practical implications

This study provides practical information from a real work context and can improve managers' understanding of active trust-repair practices.

Originality/value

This paper outlines active trust-repair practices in an organizational change context and expands the current theory by presenting novel insights into organizational trust repair. In addition, this paper contributes to the trust-repair literature by proposing promising avenues for future trust repair research.

Citation

Kähkönen, T. (2020), "Employee trust repair after organizational change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 33 No. 6, pp. 1143-1161. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-05-2020-0136