Trust Pays Off in Productivity

Is trust important in the workplace? More than you think. You'll perform better when you trust you managers. But it makes even more of a difference when workers know they are trusted.

"A Closer Look at Trust Between Managers and Subordinates: Understanding the Effects of Both Trusting and Being Trusted on Subordinate Outcomes" by Brower, Lester, Korsgaard and Dineen in the Journal of Management, March 1, 2009

Despite previous calls to examine trust from the perspectives of both the manager and subordinate, most studies have exclusively focused on trust in the manager. The authors propose that trust in the subordinate has unique consequences beyond trust in the manager. Furthermore, they propose joint effects of trust such that subordinate behavior and intentions are most favorable when there is high mutual trust. Findings reveal unique relationships of trust in manager and trust in subordinate on performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and intentions to quit. Furthermore, the interaction of trust in manager and trust in subordinate predicts individual-directed OCB in the hypothesized direction.

Note: requires subscription for complete paper. DOI: 10.1177/0149206307312511 Vol. 35, No. 2, 327-347 (2009)

Comments

[Richard Marrs]

And trust is just as critical in peer-to-peer relationships, whether individual-to-individual, group-to-group, or organization-to organization, and not just for productivity.

Trust is probably the single most critical component of collaborative innovation within teams and organizations. In our work with clients, we have seen lack of trust between managers and subordinates; team members, etc. create a barrier to effective collaboration and innovation. This barrier is so strong that any process or attempts to stimulate collaboration or innovation, without dealing with the basic issue of trust (lack thereof) simply fail.

And cross-boundary collaboration and innovation can’t even get started without a foundation of trust.

We also see that while there are numerous proponents of “trust”- particularly the large audience speakers and authors – few, if any, really deal with the processes and organizational actions (especially management actions) required to build a foundation for trust, creating trust as a core operating principle within the organization.

Productivity, collaboration, innovation: If you think about it, is there any activity, function or relationship within an organization or team that does not depend on trust?