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Although previous studies have addressed the positive relationship between trust and performance, existing research has paid limited attention to management that shapes valued organisation behaviours important for effectiveness and wellbeing. This paper examines how organisational trust and performance unfold in the context of one private and one public sector case organisation in management change.

A multiple case study design using qualitative methods is applied to analyse textual data gathered from management and employee perspectives, juxtaposing private and public organisations.

Management change renewed decision-making in both organisations through role clarification. Through clearer roles, expectations were better managed in the collaborating units of a private organisation case and of the employees in a public organisation case impacting on organisational ability and predictability. Along with organisational communication, these develop trust which seems to be reflected in employee job performance at the organisational level.

This paper contributes to the gap in qualitative, empirical and contextual research by providing understanding about how intra-organisational trust is related to performance. Further, this paper sheds light on the vulnerability within an organisation during management change and adds to the somewhat scarce studies of relationships between trust and performance by juxtaposing the two contexts. Consequently, this enables one to reveal different approaches to trust and performance between the two sectors.

This case study explores trust at work, described by young professionals in the early stages of their careers. In this article, trust is approached as the study participants' experiences of interpersonal trust. More specifically, it refers to relationships between colleagues, among individuals or at group level (Ma et al., 2019). Supervisors or managers did not take part in this study. The research question was “What do young professionals tell about trust and its importance at work?”

The empirical study consists of qualitative data, focus group (5) interviews (n = 20) of young professionals who are in the early stages of their careers (1–3 years after graduation). The study is contextualized in Finland, in Helsinki metropolitan area, in three social and healthcare workplaces and two information technology (IT) organizations. Both public and private sectors are represented. The data were analysed by theory-based content analysis.

According to the study results, descriptions of trust and its importance at work can be placed in three main categories. First, trust is an important element in improving young professionals' adaptation into the working community. Second, trust strengthens young professionals' professionalism and professional development at work. Third, trust at work highlights ethical issues and their significance in workplace relationships. Practical implications and limitations are also discussed.

Due to the nature of this study, the research results should be viewed critically. The results can be seen as one suggestion to structure and increase understanding of trust in working life, from the perspective of young professionals in the early stages of their careers. As all research, the studies included in this review had several limitations that need to be taken into account. First, one of them is the size of the data, also in this study. Second, although literature has been searched carefully, there is always a chance of better literature existing for discussion on trust at work from young professionals' points of view, even though there is not a lot available on this specific topic. Nonetheless, literature of this study includes the most relevant classics of trust research. Third, the method has its own limits because it is based on focus group interviews, not interviews of individuals. On the other hand, it offered time for the team to reflect on trust in their own team. Still, this study offers one option for discussion of trust in work relationships. Additionally, it was noteworthy that the subjects were at the beginning of their careers, joining a new working community. They were in the early stages of building a professional identity, seeking confirmation of their skills and position in the working community. Thus, we recognize that this may have contributed to the collection of research data, which was a focus group interview. Few participants in the interview wanted to strongly point out the factors related to distrust, even if they had appeared at work. The authors recognize that exploring trust requires trust and acknowledge it. Data have been collected before the COVID-19 pandemic (see, e.g. van Zoonen et al., 2021).

This study implies that trust at work should focus on discussing young professionals' thoughts, expectations, feelings and experiences of trust at work as part of transitioning from graduation into working life or in early stages of their careers. Trust should not only be discussed in dyadic discussions between young professionals and supervisors but also as part of team discussions. The authors’ suggestion is that trust should be in the core of team discussions, not just as part of teams' social and emotional dimensions of their functionality and capacity. Courage and skills to take part in such discussions is needed from all parties. Especially leaders have to have the ability to create a trusting environment to talk about trust. In particular, the importance of peers in trust and their importance at work should be taken into account. By understanding young professionals’ point of view, we can prevent job changes or dissatisfaction at work too. The purpose of this study was to contribute to this line of research on trust at work. The trust resource contributes to and promotes the realization of participation in working life.

The trust resource contributes to and promotes the realization of participation in working life. Leaders and coworkers can learn about trust as a phenomenon, while developing more emotionally sustainable working environments for young professionals. Trust should be seen as a skill or competence to improve various positive functional dimensions at work.

The results demonstrate that it is crucial to ensure emotional sustainability at work, and a positive feeling of belonging at work supports young professionals by developing a trusting work environment. It strengthens their engagement in a new work.

Enhancing competitiveness through quality has become an increasingly important challenge of learning in organizations. This paper discusses that challenge by presenting conceptual and empirical implications from a research project on quality implementation strategies and learning. Links managerial perceptions of quality, commitment to quality, and learning as a mechanism of quality implementation. Examines quality implementation from a managerial ideological perspective. Case study data gathered from four Finnish manufacturing companies show that the advantageous learning in quality implementation is based on developing solid conceptual skills for managers in the first place, managerial commitment to quality and the sharing of quality thinking in the entire organization. Discusses these factors and describes how positive and negative learning cycles develop and lead organizations to promote and avoid learning accordingly. Proposes that implementing quality through learning is basically an ideological phenomenon. Ideological thinking may develop into a managerial skill that is a source of organizational strength. Implications are made for managers on the role of conceptual skills and ideological thinking in effective quality implementation.

Deals with one of the key human resource (HR) issues in current working life, namely employer‐employee relations. Looks at the process of the development of employer‐employee relations in an organization‐wide change process, more specifically in quality improvement initiative. Presents empirical findings and implications from a qualitative, longitudinal Finnish case study on the implementation of quality management thinking and practices. Suggests leadership‐oriented development strategies for employer‐employee relations and better utilization of HR. Proposes that the progress in the development of labor‐management relations is based on an incremental ideological change which is a leader‐driven learning process. Incremental change in the workplace mentality leads to increasing trust and cooperation. Implies that in the development of labor‐management relations visible leadership and good leadership skills are needed; managers need sensitivity for seeing the right time and knowing the right ways for building mutual trust. Leadership actions, in turn, give support to traditionally more passive human resource management actions.

Aims to explore the Six Sigma methodology as a method for developing CI capability. More specifically, the focus is on the role of management in the improvement of processes. Any type of organizational improvement process requires visible leadership and effective management to be successful. In high‐performance organizations, in particular, in which the Six Sigma methodology is currently gaining ground, managers allocate resources to the improvement activities they regard as crucial for the organization's success. Six Sigma is an improvement methodology that aims to increase business performance through a solid and accurate business focus. As the adoption of the Six Sigma methodology is still at an early stage in Finnish business life, presents preliminary case study findings. The findings imply that managers should adopt and internalize the Six Sigma philosophy first to give sufficient support to the implementation process. Furthermore, additional attention should be paid to the development of measurement systems and real time reporting systems, which is initially a managerial responsibility.

This article explores the nature of managerial commitment to such strategic changes as downsizing and quality improvement. Its purpose is to develop a theoretical framework of managerial commitment. Findings from a qualitative study are presented resulting in the classification of commitment in two dimensions: reward‐based and trust‐based commitments. A theoretical typology of the four types of managerial commitment is developed based on the dimensions: passive, calculative, trustful, and balanced types of commitment. The article argues that the general assumptions in commitment literature that people need material, social or psychological incentives and rewards which facilitate identification with an organization are one‐sided. It proposes that much more emphasis should be put on studying trust‐based commitment and elements affecting it for both economic and ethical reasons than prior research has done.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of organizational learning and continuous improvement (CI) in the context six sigma implementation in business organizations operating in multicultural environments.

A specific research question is: does learning mechanisms and continuous improvement practices support each other and how, and what type of learning can be identified in the improvement of business processes. The question is linked to one of the fundamental issues currently discussed in the field of organizational learning; how do organizations get “from here to there”, in other words, what is the dynamics of the processes of learning and how progressive learning is achieved. A case study of a few Finnish companies is made and a procedural implementation model is applied.

The findings suggest that the learning process is characterized by measurement, detection and correction of errors, and cost reduction. In six sigma implementation, learning is a single‐loop type of learning. It is an incremental change process which reminds a technical variant of the learning organization. Continuous improvement occurs through procedural practices (the DMAIC‐cycle) which forms a structure for sustaining learning.

In this study, an essential question remains still unanswered: what type of learning is appropriate when organizational performance is enhanced by process improvements in production, delivery processes, etc. and what kind of learning mechanisms are the most supportive to continuous improvement practices. Further research is needed to find out how (if at all) the technical (single‐loop) approach develops into social (cultural and political) type of learning enabling sustainable capability development. For researching this a longitudinal case study setting would be required. As this paper has reported on the authors' first exploration, further research is needed to increase understanding of learning mechanisms that support CI practices. In further studies it is necessary to “dig” in real life practices of six sigma implementation more deeply.

Management should invest in, and allocate resources to staff training in order to promote learning and CI. On the level of operational leadership, the role of the leaders needs to be more clearly defined and leaders should be empowered. Managerial implication is that the development of information systems is a necessity for supporting CI and progressive learning in six sigma implementation.

Explains the dynamics of continuous improvement and learning process. Presents findings from a case study in three Finnish multinational companies. Presents a few key success factors for progressive organizational learning in conclusion.

This paper aims to determine the key trust antecedents that influence Internet users’ trust level toward Internet service providers (ISPs) in a high-risk society. It also investigates trust-building process, major causes of its violation, their potential implications and restoration.

A mixed-method approach was used in collecting data in Kenya in 2014 by using questionnaire and interview techniques. The former was administered to 250 (with 81 per cent response rate) randomly selected Internet users at Kenyatta University while the latter focused on key decision-makers from four randomly selected ISPs in Nairobi.

The results show that Internet users’ perceptions of ISPs’ ability to be trusted in Kenya depend more on their competence in terms of service delivery (ability) and desire to protect users (benevolence) than upholding acceptable standards (integrity). The results also indicate a lack of trust manifested in poor communication and greed for profit among ISPs as major causes of trust violation.

This paper proposes two frameworks that can enhance Internet use by providing a better understanding of trust in a high-risk society.

This paper aims at increasing the understanding of the processes and dynamics of CI implementation. The paper presents findings from a longitudinal case study of how the organization is renewed by the embedding of quality‐related managerial ideology. It approaches CI from the perspective of organizational renewal, and looks at implementation as a managerial ideological change process. The paper draws on multi disciplinary concepts. The concept of ideology from political science is applied. Ideology is viewed as a force of organizational renewal, in other words, as a means that exerts influence on managerial thinking and practices. The ideological perspective provides new conceptual ideas and practical insights into CI implementation. The case study shows that CI implementation is cyclical and reveals company‐specific cycles. These cycles imply a challenge to management: the progress in developing CI capabilities is embedded in a rooted managerial ideology through which inimitable competitive advantages can be realized.