Titel: How Do I Trust Thee? The Employee-Organization Relationship, Supervisory Support and Middle Managers’ Trust in the Organization

Authors: Yan Zhang, Anne Tsui, Jiwen Song, Chaoping Li, Liangding Jia

Abstract: Given the assumption that most employers would like to gain the trust of their employees, what would initiate this trust? This study explored the joint role of the employee-organization relationship (EOR) and supervisory support in initiating trust among middle managers. The results from a study of 545 middle managers in China showed that both EOR and supervisory support are important in creating trust with supervisory support having a stronger influence than EOR. Further, supervisors play a synergistic role by accentuating the positive influence of the mutual investment EOR approach and attenuating the negative influence of the quasi-spot contract EOR with the managers. Results reinforce the importance of both formal structure and social processes in cultivating employees’ trust in an organization. Implications for future research and human resource management practices are discussed.

Key words: trust, employee organization relationship, supervisory support, middle managers, China

Source: Yan Zhang, Anne Tsui, Jiwen Song, Chaoping Li, Liangding Jia, How Do I Trust Thee? The Employee-Organization Relationship, Supervisory Support and Middle Managers’ Trust in the Organization, Human Resource Management , 2008, 47(1), 111-132