Antecedents of coworker trust: Leaders' blessings

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lau, Dora C.; Liden, Robert C.
• 署名单位: Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Chicago; University of Illinois Chicago Hospital
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.93.5.1130
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1130-1138
• 关键词: coworker trust; leaders' influence; vertical dyads; social networks

摘要

Although employee trust in leaders has garnered substantial empirical research, trust between coworkers has been virtually ignored. Extending the work of D. L. Ferrin, K. T. Dirks, and P. P. Shah (2006), the authors examined the role of group leaders, an influential third party in the workplace, on coworker trust formation. The correlates of the extent to which coworkers trust one another were examined in an investigation of 146 members of 32 work groups representing 4 diverse organizations. In this study, which utilized full network data, coworker trust was operationalized as in-degree centrality in the trust network. Controlling for relational demography and coworker helping behaviors, the authors found, as hypothesized, that coworkers tended to place more trust in fellow coworkers who were also trusted by the teams' formal leaders than in coworkers who were less trusted by leaders. In addition, consistent with the social information processing theory, support was found for the hypothesis that the relationship between leaders' trust and coworker trust is stronger when group performance is poor.