Organizational Trust Model Based on Business Students’ Opinions

Adrian SoneaPetru Maior University, adrian.sonea@ea.upm.ro

Ovidiu-Niculae BordeanBabes-Bolyai University, ovidiu.bordean@econ.ubbcluj.ro

Eugenia Câmpeanu-SoneaBabes-Bolyai University, eugenia.sonea@econ.ubbcluj.ro

ContentsIntroduction

Part I. Literature review and theoretical vision of the authors1. Organizational trust - concept

2. Areas of importance

3. A model of organizational trust

Part II. A sociological survey conducted in an university from Transylvania (Romania)

4. Students’ opinions on the level of organizational trust in the companies which they work

2. Comparative study of students’ opinions from the companies with different sources of capital

3. Conclusions, extensions and limits of the research

The Concept of Trust (1)CONCEPT

Individual level;

Groups – Organizations;

Social – National level;

Globalization – Virtual companies.

 

SCIENTIFIC AREAS

Psychology;

Sociology;

Economy – Management;

Philosophy;

Politic – Dialogue and Negotiation.

 

The Concept of Trust (2)ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST

 

Problems of Psychology and Economy

Communication – the Base of Organizational Trust

Efficiency, Risk and Encapsulated Trust:

 

- rational choice perspectives – in calculative terms from sociological (Coleman, 1990), economic (Williamson, 1993), and political (Hardin, 1992; 2002) theories;

- risky choice: individuals are presumed to be motivated to make rational, efficient choice - that maximize expected gains or minimize expected losses from their transactions (Schelling, 1960).

Conception of encapsulated trust – “ You can more confidently trust me, if you know that my own interests will induce me to live up to your expectation. Your trust then encapsulates my interests” (Hardin, 1991).

A Model of Organizational TrustMODEL (Re-written after Shockley-Zalabak et al, 2010, and the authors’ study)

 To (organizational trust)

Five “key drivers”:

 

Q1 - Employees’ and managers’ competence;

Q2 - Openness and honesty;

Q3 - Concern for the company employees;

Q4 - Reliability – safety and stability;

Q5 - Identification with the organization.

 

Tr, the global result of the organizational trust:

 

Q6 - Concern for the customers and the other stakeholders;

Q7 - Efficiency and effectiveness and

Q8 – Employee’s job satisfaction.  

Study Objectives1. Determining the level of organizational trust (by a sociological survey on the students in Business Administration) within the companies where the students work (companies from the Centre of Transylvania, Romania);

2. Determining the differences between the level of trust in Romanian capital companies and foreign or mixed capital companies;

3. The way to organizational trust development by professional competence of the specialist with higher education.

  

Hypotheses1. Different level of the five “key drivers”, the level of organizational trust (To) and the global result (Tr), as issue of students’ opinions from the university, more critical then other employees of companies;

2. Different level of trust between companies with Romanian capital (R) and capital from abroad (F – foreign and mixed capital – Romanian and foreign), i.e. a higher level of organizational trust in the foreign capital companies versus Romanian companies.

 

  

Figure 1Model of Organizational Trust (To) and the global result (Tr)

in the case of a Romanian company

Table 1. Sample structure according to answer Q1 – Q5 by sources of capital (codes average)

Table 2. Sample structure according to answer Q6 – Q8 by sources of capital (codes average)

Table 3. Correlations between „key drivers” and the global result of organizational trust (Tr) by sources of capital

Table 4. Correlations between the level of organizational trust (To) and the results by sources of capital

Figure 2Model of Organizational Trust (To) and the global result (Tr)

on the total research sample

Conclusions (1)

• The critical spirit is visibly expressed for this group of subjects, towards the company management efforts to support and develop the trust in the organization.

• The appreciations of the respondents are better at the companies with foreign capital, compared to the Romanian companies, but not in all the cases.

• The correlations are stronger in the case of Romanian companies, which proves consistency and seriousness in the appreciations of the subjects.

• A better identification with the company, in the case of Romanian companies (Q5 – Identification with the organisation).

Conclusions (2)

• Better identification in the case of Romanian companies (Q5) - the strong influence of the top management, situated in the country or even in the same building as the employee.

• This shows a deficiency in the technical and psychological preparations of the companies, in the context of globalisation.

• Creating the conditions for a higher level of work satisfaction - clear advantage of the foreign companies (Q8 – Employee job satisfaction).

• The responses for Q6 and Q7 (Concern for customers and other stakeholders and Efficiency and effectiveness) - deficiencies in the communication process and in providing information to the employees of the foreign companies.

Future area of research

For the purpose of further developing this research, the authors wish to highlight the possibilities of improving the education system, for a better training of managers and other categories of employees, with a view of creating an organisation culture based on a high level of trust.

The Objectives and the Hypotheses The objectives of our research were fulfilled, and the two hypotheses were validated, but there is room for completionsand enhancement in the interpretation of the results.

Thank you for your attention!