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This chapter aims to develop an institutionalist concept of faith based on Williamson's concept of ‘institutional trust’ and Coleman's contribution to ‘placement of trust’. As a starting point, it considers the social capital literature on trust from the perspective of institutional economics and economic anthropology. ‘Institutional faith’ posits as a normative state the inevitability of trust with regard to certain questions human beings cannot answer. This has a behaviour-channelling effect which makes, e.g. for institutional stability. The proposed concept is evaluated critically by contrasting it with T. Kuran's concept of ‘preference falsification’ in the Hindu caste system. Finally, the concept is challenged by today's Hindu fundamentalism and makes a differentiation between fundamentalism and institutional faith.

Over the years, a considerable depth of research has established the link between trust, commitment and relationship marketing and its relevance to consumers’ brand preferences. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on how they are linked to religiosity. Accordingly, this paper aims to address the palpable gap.

This paper is conceptual and draws from the eclectic review of the extant literature that revolves around the key themes associated with the topic.

The paper emphasises the significance of trust and religiosity in consumers’ commitment to specific market offerings and brands which invariably strengthen relationship marketing. A model entitled Brand-faith Relationship model (BFR) is proposed to understand brand positioning in the marketplace in relation to faith. With this model, a four-category typology of brand position scenarios is suggested in this paper. Passive brand-faith relationship, faith trust established in the absence of brands, brand loyalty without any faith associations and brand loyalty, with positive brand-faith relationship.

This paper has significant implications for brand management in relation to segmentation, targeting and the positioning of brands in the marketplace. It also raises marketers’ consciousness on the potency of trust embedded in consumers’ faith/religiosity in their brand preferences.

This paper explores the concepts of trust and consumers’ brand choices within the relationship marketing literature vis-à-vis the role of religion, which is rarely examined.

This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship between social capital, faith and prison-leaver resettlement, emphasising how penal voluntary sector organisations (PVSOs) aid prison-leavers in their resettlement and desistance journeys, following incarceration.

Employing a combination of narrative and thematic analysis, data was collected from 20 prison-leavers in England through semi-structured interviews. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit participants from various community-based resettlement settings.

Thematic analysis revealed the emergence of faith in various iterations in facilitating desistance, Transforming Rehabilitation failure, identity transformation of the prison-leaver, the role of social capital in effective resettlement and the importance of PVSOs. In particular, the findings demonstrate the vital role of a “Faith Anchor”, defined in this paper as a trust-based relationship with an individual or spiritual entity, in facilitating desistance. This paper argues the need to recognise and fully integrate social capital building, faith and specialised support from PVSOs, as essential components of successful offender resettlement and desistance journeys.

The study considers the connection between faith, social capital and offender resettlement. Although demonstrating the role of faith in positive change and community engagement, there are limitations. Primarily, by exclusively recruiting participants through PVSOs, it might overlook varied resettlement experiences. Additionally, measuring desistance is complex and is limited by some academic views that it centres around abstinence. Although small-scale saturation was reached; generalisation should be approached with caution. Notably, post-Transforming Rehabilitation, the human cost of resettlement gaps became evident. Future research could benefit from a longitudinal lens, tracing desistance beyond initial PVSO interactions and offering richer, longitudinal insights.

Significance of “faith anchors”: A “faith anchor” aids the desistance process. Integrating faith in resettlement offers emotional support for prison leavers. Value of social capital: It is pivotal for offender resettlement. Positive social networks are key for successful reintegration. Role of PVSOs: They provide vital resettlement support. Enhanced collaboration can optimise assistance for prison leavers. Addressing current system shortcomings: Rectifying the effects of Transforming Rehabilitation ensures holistic support, catering to prison leavers’ needs. Concept of “faith exchange”: Merging faith and support offers tailored resettlement approaches, fostering effective reintegration.

The study underscores the social implications of effective offender resettlement strategies. The integration of “faith anchors” and social capital aids in the personal rehabilitation of prison leavers and also supports community cohesion. By acknowledging faith as indictive to building trust-based relationships, communities can reduce the stigma associated with former offenders, promoting inclusivity and understanding. Additionally, the essential role of PVSOs highlights the value of community-driven initiatives in supporting reintegration. A combined approach that combines faith, social capital and community support can reshape societal perspectives on desistance, encouraging a more inclusive and empathetic approach to offender reintegration.

The insights gained contribute to the evolving discourse on prison-leaver resettlement and desistance and uniquely highlight the potential of a combined approach between social capital, faith and voluntary sector support, in achieving desistance goals. The term “faith exchange” emerges from this study as an original conceptual contribution, accentuating the relationship between faith and support in resettlement and desistance.

As a result of a broad range of reforms, one significant change in the governance landscape in China is the multiple forms of enterprise ownership. This empirical study investigates differences between private and collective forms of organizations in China’s transformation economy on managerial beliefs, using the dimensions of trust and procedural justice and how these views influence managers’ decision‐making behavior. The findings of the study suggest that there are differences in the emphasis managers place on trust and procedural justice in collectively and privately owned enterprises and that these managerial beliefs have a positive effect on decision making within these forms of enterprise.

Drawing on similarity-attraction hypothesis and generational gap literatures, this study aims to examine the impact of age difference in a leader–member dyad on leader–member exchange (LMX). The study hypothesized that relational age would impact the subordinates-reported LMX. However, given that leaders have structural power over subordinates and hence have mechanisms of interaction available to them, the age difference might not determine their perception of quality of LMX. The study also hypothesized that generation gap in values and beliefs leads to lack of trust, on the part of subordinates, which in turn might be the reason for poor quality of LMX.

A total of 200 leader–member dyads from five organizations in the National Capital Region of India were used in this study. Data were collected via separate structured questionnaires for leaders and members, which comprised of standard scales of LMX and perceived trust, and demographics.

Hypotheses received substantial support from the data with a few exceptions. Only the loyalty dimension of perceived trust mediates the relationship between relational age and member perception of LMX.

Results have implications for relational age and LMX interventions. However, the results are to be viewed in the light of members’ perspective. While this is a common practice in LMX research, it would be interesting to explore leaders’ trust and psychological reactions as well, for additional insights into leadership practice.

Limited work has been done to explore the impact of relational age on LMX, that too mediated by trust. An attempt has been made in this study to do so via leader–member dyads.

The early institutional theory literature highlighted religion as a core societal institution that influences the behaviours of individuals and organisations. Yet to date, religion has remained relatively unexplored in the management and organisational theory literature. This chapter draws on the idea of homophily – similarity breeds connection to explore a peculiarly instructive case focussing on how religion might influence employees’ trust in the CEO in the Nigerian context – generally assumed to be a religious society. The qualitative study employed a multiple case study design with 40 interviewees from two private sector organisations. The study found religion to be instrumental in developing trust relationships. However, contrary to the idea of homophily, it is not religious similarities per se that influence employees’ trust in the CEOs. Instead, employees’ trust is predicated upon them attributing inherent to the CEOs. Therefore, the study provides theoretical and practical insights into how institutional logics, specifically religious logic, influence employees’ behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate clearly between three frequently used concepts found in the research literature on public perceptions of the police: confidence in the police, satisfaction with the police and trust in the police.

Systemic literature review and thematic analysis are employed to assess each key term in the official English language dictionary and in the research literature. Their individual origins, their evolvement and their current usages are examined with great care.

The findings of the study suggest that the three phrases are indeed distinct in their connotation. It is concluded that “confidence in the police” is the preferred choice when we survey the citizenry about the level of support for the police and when the police is evaluated as a political institution.

Given that most criminologists believe that we are doing scientific research, it is our duty to be attentive to the pitfalls of lack of conceptual clarity.

The essay advances the conceptual clarification of one of the popular themes in the study of the police.

Reports on a follow‐up study of the relationship between managerial quality, administrative performance and citizens’ trust in government and in public administration systems. The study was based on a survey of 502 Israeli citizens conducted during 2002 and was compared with a similar study that was conducted during 2001 among 345 Israeli citizens. The research tried to validate and replicate previous findings on the question of causality between performance and trust. As in the 2001 survey the technique of structural equation modeling with LISREL 8.3 was applied to test three competing models that were similar to those tested in the past. The present findings were very consistent with the previous ones found by the authors showing that the second model was the best fit with the data. According to this model managerial quality leads to administrative performance and ultimately to trust in governance. The findings support previous assumptions that administrative performance may be treated as a precondition to trust in governance rather than trust serving as the precondition to performance.

For longer than most people would think, over 40 years, organisational psychologists have been defining and characterising the employment relationship in terms of the psychological contract. Across the same period, judges have through their decisions in legal cases been setting down implied terms that apply to all contracts of employment. Accompanying this development certain commentators, drawn from both academic and practitioner backgrounds have been analysing these terms in considerable detail. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature and importance of the concept of the psychological contract and consider its application in the context of the most important implied terms in the contract of employment.

This article was written from a review of the secondary sources of the two disciplines covered. It was only possible to give an overview of the key areas and their influence and given that these two areas had not been analysed together before there was little material available to refer to. The underlying question is how complimentary and compatible are these concepts? This is fully considered through analysis of the effect of their combination in explaining or de‐limiting the employment relationship and the contract of employment.

It is contended that as both these contracts have in some respects a common purpose it seems an opportune time to reflect on their role and their potential, if any, for combined utilisation in the workplace.

It is contended that this research is important as it analyses the nature and impact of two different contractual models that characterise and regulate the employment relationship. These models are drawn from two separate disciplines and as far as this commentator is aware this is the first time this specific form of analysis has been undertaken.

This paper explores the relationship between transformational principal leadership and individual teacher innovativeness, considering the mediating role of teacher agency (TA) and the moderating role of teacher trust (TT).

We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) using survey data collected from 676 teachers at 25 schools in Turkey.

The results indicated no direct correlation between transformational leadership (TL) and teacher innovativeness but revealed a significant and positive association between TL and teachers' agency, as well as between teachers' agency and innovativeness, suggesting that TA fully mediates the association between TL and teacher innovativeness. Additionally, teachers' trust positively influenced the link between principal leadership and teachers' innovativeness, with the impact of TL on teachers' innovativeness being stronger when trust levels were higher.

This study contributes to the literature, providing an understanding of the mechanisms through which leadership can exert an influence on teacher innovativeness.

This study also suggests that the strength of the influence is likely to vary under different circumstances. Trust among teachers appears to play a key role in the effect of school leadership on teachers, particularly when aiming to support and sustain innovativeness.

Trust-based relationships within a school are essential for school principals to influence innovative practices. We conclude that, in the absence of trust as a key component of school climate, achieving a comprehensive understanding of the role of school leadership in fostering teacher innovativeness seems unattainable.

This paper expands existing knowledge regarding the effect of TL in leading teacher innovativeness by indicating the indispensable role of TA and trust.