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Article
Publication date: 29 September 2020

Tiina Kähkönen

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

1833

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.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 33 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 July 2012

Sheila Simsarian Webber, Karen Bishop and Regina O'Neill

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trust repair efforts of top management within an organization specifically focusing on the impact of perceived organizational support…

2448

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trust repair efforts of top management within an organization specifically focusing on the impact of perceived organizational support and issue‐selling success. Building on the theoretical trust repair literature, the authors bridge the gap between the laboratory dyad trust repair settings and the severe organization‐wide trust repair settings.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors focus on one organizational context that experienced competency‐ and integrity‐based trust violations between managers and top management. Surveys and interviews were conducted with 32 managers to capture trust in top management, issue‐selling success rate, and perceived organizational support.

Findings

Results demonstrate that perceived organizational support is significantly and positively related to trust in top management. In contrast, issue‐selling success rate is negatively related to trust in top management above and beyond the impact of perceived organizational support.

Practical implications

Trust repair approaches should include demonstrations of organizational support of employees by showing care and concern along with engaging employees in a change process that demonstrates top management commitment to repairing trusting relationships. In addition, top management trust repair efforts should focus on providing managers with the opportunity to engage in multiple issue‐selling episodes.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to an existing research base by extending the approaches to repairing trust in organizational settings to specifically examine the impact of perceived organizational support and issue‐selling.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 April 2023

Tiina Kähkönen, Mika Vanhala and Kirsimarja Blomqvist

In this paper, the authors describe the step-by-step approach used to develop a trust-repair construct and a valid measurement scale for assessing employee perceptions of the most…

1004

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the authors describe the step-by-step approach used to develop a trust-repair construct and a valid measurement scale for assessing employee perceptions of the most effective employee trust-repair practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The initial employee trust-repair scale (ETRS) was completed by 282 employees of a non-profit organization and validated by 101 employees of the administrative unit of the Finnish Army.

Findings

The 14-item seven-factor model was found to be reliable, valid and stable across the samples.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to the current literature on trust repair by presenting the first validated measure for employee trust repair.

Practical implications

The findings provide a valuable instrument for practitioners to assess the state of employee trust-repair practices.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in an organizational context demonstrating an operationally valid and comprehensive measure for employee trust-repair practices.

Details

Journal of Advances in Management Research, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0972-7981

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 May 2021

Tiina Kähkönen

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

4783

Abstract

Purpose

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

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach was adopted, and data were collected from key informants through focus group discussions and interviews. The data analysis involved thematic coding and followed the structured procedure.

Findings

This study found that after organization change, trust can be repaired at the team level by improving team leaders' information sharing and knowledge in change management, and by enforcing communication, collaboration and ethical behaviour among team members.

Research limitations/implications

This paper makes three key contributions by (1) identifying trust violations in teams, (2) proposing trust-repair mechanisms and (3) extending the understanding of trust-repair and preservation at the team level following organizational change.

Practical implications

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

Originality/value

This paper outlines active trust-repair mechanisms in an organizational change context and expands the current theory by presenting novel insights into organizational trust-repair at the team level. This study contributes to trust literature by proposing promising avenues for future trust-repair research.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 October 2018

Sabina Siebert, Graeme Martin and Branko Bozic

Over the last decade, trust repair has become an important theoretical and practical concern in HRM. The purpose of this paper is to explain why organisations fail to repair their…

Abstract

Purpose

Over the last decade, trust repair has become an important theoretical and practical concern in HRM. The purpose of this paper is to explain why organisations fail to repair their stakeholders’ trust following a series of trust breaches.

Design/methodology/approach

Archival data is used to investigate the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Using the analytical frame of the detective novel, the authors analyse reputational scandals in RBS, and in doing so, they explore the interweaving of two stories: the story of the “crime” (the bank's actions which led to breaches of trust) and the story of the “detectives” (parliamentary, regulatory and press investigators).

Findings

Based on their analysis, the authors argue that the organisation's failure to repair trust is associated with ineffective detection of what went wrong in the bank and why.

Practical implications

HR practitioners dealing with similar situations should understand the complicated and unfolding nature of repeated transgressions, and the reasons why previous trust repair efforts may have failed.

Social implications

An organisation may be showing willingness to accept responsibility for the violation of trust, but while new transgressions happen, trust repair efforts may fail. Therefore, what is needed in organisations is a longitudinal analysis that takes into account organisational history, including earlier wrongdoings.

Originality/value

The paper is one of the few analysing trust repair from a process perspective and using the metaphor of the detective novel to provide insights into organizational reintegration.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 5 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 May 2014

Sabina Siebert and Graeme Martin

–The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate over people management rationales and how they relate to organizational effectiveness.

Abstract

Purpose

–The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate over people management rationales and how they relate to organizational effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the distinction between the “logic of consequences” and the “logic of appropriateness,” the paper explores one aspect of managing people – managers’ attempts to restore trust after an intra-organizational breach of trust. This is done on the basis of a systematic approach to a review of the literature on intra-organizational trust and organizational trust repair.

Findings

The paper argues that in their trust repair efforts managers socially construct and enact a narrow business agenda for the firm, which is typically justified by a logic of consequences. Instead, the authors suggest that managers may be better advised to follow a logic of appropriateness in restoring trust among employees, which acknowledges the importance of context and managers’ lack of control over employees’ reactions to trust repair strategies.

Practical implications

A key practical implication of the logic of appropriateness is that, in certain contexts, the most effective strategy for trust repair is inaction (rather than action), a strategy often neglected in people management practice.

Social implications

The social implications of this paper highlight the social context in which people management strategies take place and the limitations of “one-size-fits-all” HRM prescriptions.

Originality/value

The value of the paper is bringing a much neglected stream of research on the strengths of inaction as a positive strategy in organizational theory to current HRM scholars as a way of balancing the typical agentive approaches to HRM and intra-organizational trust repair.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Benjamin James Crossley

The purpose of this paper is to provide practical knowledge on how to repair trust within inter-organisational relationships (IORs), and to compare that knowledge to present…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide practical knowledge on how to repair trust within inter-organisational relationships (IORs), and to compare that knowledge to present academic research. IORs have an alarming failure rate upwards of 60 per cent. Although the breakdown of trust is a well-documented critical component of their failure, specific research on IOR trust repair is limited.

Design/methodology/approach

The research applied a ranked Delphi study utilising UK professionals’ expertise in IOR management.

Findings

The results provide two practical frameworks and several new methods for IOR trust repair; furthermore, they demonstrate consistency between professionally adopted IOR trust repair methods and those proposed academically.

Research limitations/implications

The study ' s primary limitations resulted from being conducted at the lower end of its operating window, and only with panellists interested in trust repair. The implications for research are to direct investigations to the new IOR trust repair methods and to test when professionals would undertake trust repair methods.

Practical implications

The IOR trust repair frameworks can be utilised retrospectively as a tool kit to repair damaged relationships. Additionally, they can be proactively embedded in IOR contract documentation, whereby parties agree to enact and abide by the frameworks, should relations deteriorate, before proceeding down legal avenues.

Originality/value

This paper offers the first contribution from the UK professional community on IOR trust repair; they have provided new research areas for academics as well as practicable, pertinent frameworks for professionals.

Details

International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-1450

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 October 2020

Edward C. Tomlinson, Christopher A. Nelson and Luke A. Langlinais

This paper aims to investigate how the reparative efforts of extensive apologies, compensation and structural change affect trust after a violation has occurred. Specifically…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how the reparative efforts of extensive apologies, compensation and structural change affect trust after a violation has occurred. Specifically, this paper presents a cognitive process model positing that voluntary reparative efforts will shape the victim’s stability attributions for the cause of the violation such that it will be deemed less stable (i.e. unlikely to recur); as a result, the victim is more likely to perceive the transgressor as being fair, and hence extend subsequent trust.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experiments were conducted to test the cognitive process model.

Findings

The results of both experiments supported this predicted sequence for extensive apologies. Support for the predicted sequence was also found when compensation and structural change are invoked as reparative efforts.

Originality/value

This research has theoretical and practical implications for a more nuanced understanding of how causal attribution theory and organizational justice theory can be integrated within the context of trust repair.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 July 2021

Dedong Wang, Ziyao Zhou and Yongqiang Lu

This study aims to explore the combined strategies leading to successful repair of two types of trust in Chinese construction projects and provide an effective guidance and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the combined strategies leading to successful repair of two types of trust in Chinese construction projects and provide an effective guidance and control trust repair in construction projects. During the research period, the author interviewed 150 managers from 50 Chinese construction projects and collected details of 125 violations. The research examines the effect of combined strategy of trust repair in Chinese management scenario.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted a mixed, quantitative, qualitative and exploratory approach. The author first extracted six strategies, namely, apology, denial, penance, communication, promise and compensation, from the literature review and generalization. Then, the author conducted an interview with 150 managers from 50 China construction projects. And the author analyzed the data through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA).

Findings

When competence-based trust is broken, violators should adopt communication and promise, demonstrate their competence and qualification, and change the attributions of competence from the trustor. When integrity-based trust is broken, violators should apologize, actively admit the mistake, show a positive attitude and seek the forgiveness from the trustor. After reconstructing trustors' perceptions of competence or integrity, violators should also make a promise to trustors for the future. The result of this research not only illustrates the sufficiency and necessity of a single strategy for trust repair but also explores the combination of trust repair strategies that rebuild the trust.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to 50 construction projects in the Chinese construction context, so conclusions are limited in application. Data used in this research did not provide an in-depth analysis of trust repair failures. Thus, additional research is needed to explore why trust was not repaired. The study is also limited to examining the Chinese construction project organizations only, and future studies should incorporate organizations in other nations and regions.

Practical implications

Compared with using a single strategy, a combined strategy provides a contribution to the future practice of repair broken relationship between construction project organizations. This research helps to organize decisions and benefits managers, from Chinese owners and contractors, in choosing which of these strategies repair trust. The author also provides a specific combination of strategies to repair relationships for international companies that have conflicts with Chinese construction companies.

Originality/value

This research is among the early studies in China that preliminary examines the combined strategy of trust repair between Chinese owners and contractors by using causal attribution theory and QCA. This study makes a valuable contribution toward combined strategy in construction project and the knowledge system of trust repair. Future studies could build on the findings from the current study to develop a cross-cultural research on trust repair.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 14 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2020

Elvira Bolat, Julie Robson, Kokho Jason Sit, Shannon Birch-Chapman, Samreen Ashraf, Juliet Memery and Caroline Jackson

This paper aims to understand consumers’ response to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in a service sector context following prominent trust damaging…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand consumers’ response to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in a service sector context following prominent trust damaging organizational transgressions.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting a qualitative approach, six focus group discussions are used to investigate three high-profile consumer trust erosion cases within the service sector.

Findings

Consumer trust varies by context. Despite the severity of trust damage, corporate brands can recover trust towards their brands amongst consumers not directly affected by transgressions. Not all trust repair mechanisms are equally applicable to all service contexts, and re-branding could be used as a trust repair mechanism. Corporate brands in the service sector should focus on sense-making, relational approaches and transparency. Orchestration of trust repair mechanisms needs to be integrated within the trust rehabilitation processes.

Research limitations/implications

This study illustrates it is important to reconsider trust repair processes to accommodate context and integrate post-transgression consumer research.

Practical implications

Successful corporate brand rehabilitation of consumer trust requires examination of the trustworthiness dimensions consumers express before and after the transgression to select the most appropriate trust repair mechanisms. Findings suggest organizations also have preventative trust repair management programs.

Originality/value

This research is the first to empirically apply the conceptual framework of Bachmann et al. (2015) to explore consumer responses to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands by context.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000