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Trust in change managers: The role of affect
Abstract
Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to explore what meanings organizational actors and researchers invest in the term trust, to provide insights from a qualitative perspective of employees' trust in their supervisors and in organizational management when change occurs, and to highlight the affective components of trust in this context. Design/methodology/approach ‐ A social constructionist platform is used to explore how organizational actors form perceptions of the trustworthiness of managers of change and what emotions result. In total, 24 participants from different organizations and hierarchical positions were interviewed on a variety of change experiences. Findings ‐ Positive and negative emotions were related to trust in the ability, benevolence and integrity of immediate supervisors and more senior change managers. The emotions were more intense for distrust than for trust. Some participants referred to challenges to their own integrity. Perceptions of organizational justice during change were important contributors to the creation and erosion of trust in management. Research limitations/implications ‐ The relevance of propensity to trust and pre-existing levels of trust were not investigated and researching these factors, particularly in longitudinal studies, will provide a clearer picture of emotional responses to the perceived trustworthiness of change managers. Exploring cross-cultural issues in the trustworthiness of change leaders would add depth to the field. Practical implications ‐ Developing trust in management though transparency, other fair practices and a positive organizational culture will help to gain commitment to organizational change. Originality/value ‐ This study adds to the scant literature on qualitative investigations of trust, emotions and organizational change by presenting insights from an analysis of employees' trust in the ability, benevolence and integrity of their own supervisors and those of more senior management in a range of organizations and types of change.
... Gabarro also concluded that acting too quickly or too slowly changes the employees' expectations of new leaders almost immediately; therefore, the beginning of a new leader's tenure is crucial. Smollan (2013) found that when change is anticipated, typical employees worry whether their needs will be taken into account by the new leader. ...
... Trust, which is defined as "the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party" (Mayer et al., 1995, p. 712), is considered an essential factor in how employees think, feel and act toward change (Smollan, 2013). Trust is thus a prerequisite to organizational changes because employees will try, explore and adopt new things when there is a form of mutual respect (Ouedraogo and Ouakouak, 2018). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a dynamic, multi-faceted and multi-temporal model of organizational change capability (OCC) to better grasp the complexity of this construct which is still mainly defined through its facilitating conditions rather than its own characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the literature on organizational learning, punctuated equilibrium, continuous transformation, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, this paper critically analyzes the OCC construct by challenging the ways it is currently studied.
Findings
This paper highlights that OCC contains five dynamically and temporally interrelated dimensions: learning from past change experience, managing continuous change, managing episodic change, managing change without compromising core organizational activities as well as anticipating future change. A set of propositions that link the construct to its facilitators and outcomes are also suggested.
Originality/value
This conceptual analysis shows that recognizing the existence of tensions in change management constructs is crucial to gaining a deeper understanding of the complexities that organizations are facing today. In addition, by proposing a model both in continuity with the literature by adopting a dynamic conception of OCC, but also in discontinuity by shifting the focal point of analysis towards the essence of the construct rather than its peripheral variables, this research takes a step forward to tackle the remaining misconceptions around the interpretation of change capability.
... Change is impossible without good communication and other preconditions (Aladwani, 2001). Furthermore, it is suggested that the amount of trust affects how employees react to change (Smollan and Schiavone, 2013). This method, however, cannot be assumed to work equally well for all businesses and individuals (Kraimer et al., 2011). ...
The research aims to provide actionable insights to a Dubai-based digital payment company following a leadership-driven organizational transformation. Semi-structured interviews with executives and staff were supplemented by observations and field notes. The study found that foreign employees experienced confusion due to a lack of clear communication or information. Hierarchical work environments and legacy problems hindered employee change. Fear and distrust prevented employees from voicing their concerns. Employees and executives shared similar opinions on the work environment and organizational culture. Leaders did not place enough importance on early worker involvement, communication, and information flow, which hindered their vision and evaluation of employees’ conduct. Earlier discussion and resolution of these issues may narrow the gap between the CEO and employees.
... This is not an issue that has been inquired about frequently in the writing; this paper gives a comprehension of the key components which build up these three elements of trust. Smollan (2013) investigated what implications authoritative performing artists and analysts put resources into the term trust, to give experiences from a subjective point of view of employees' trust in their administrators and hierarchical administration when change happens, and to highlight the affective segments of trust in this connection. The study includes the meager writing of subjective examinations of trust, feelings, and authoritative change by introducing bits of knowledge from an investigation of workers' trust in the ability, consideration, and respectability of their administrators and those of more senior administration in a range of associations and sorts of progress. ...
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Benevolence, Integrity, and Ability on trust in supervisors in Karachi, Pakistan. To perform this research, a quantitative study was conducted and a structured questionnaire was designed and distributed among the 300 employees in the manufacturing industry. The findings of this research are to discover the relationship between benevolence, integrity, and the ability to trust a supervisor. This is academic research and is conducted in Karachi, Pakistan. This research is done to find out the trustworthiness attribute that is most important and effective to predict employee trust in the supervisor. Supervisors should have trustworthiness attributes such as benevolence, integrity, and the ability to gain employees’ trust and decrease the anxiety and avoidance of employees at work.
... O comprometimento do time é um conceito definido como uma força que une o indivíduo a uma linha de ação orientada na busca de um ou mais objetivos (MEYER; HERSCOVITCH, 2001). Smollan (2013) indica que, dentre os elementos afetivos presentes nas relações interpessoais, a confiança influi no comprometimento afetivo do time, em contraste com os sentimentos de dor que emergem quando essa confiança é quebrada. ...
Este artigo busca analisar se os líderes autênticos estão associados a times mais potentes. O estudo foi realizado numa empresa de alta tecnologia localizada no município de Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro). O estudo foi realizado através de 373 colaboradores. A pesquisa é de natureza quantitativa, na qual se realizou pesquisa de survey, com questionário estruturado e auto-administrado. Os dados coletados foram tratados por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais. O modelo hipotético testado foi baseado no referencial teórico do tema, sendo que os resultados aceitaram as hipóteses propostas presentes na modelagem, com a indicação das variáveis observadas que exercem influência na potência do time. Ademais, foi realizada uma abordagem através da estatística descritiva para a liderança autêntica, virtuosidade do time, compromisso afetivo com a equipe e potência do time. Dentre as variáveis que exerceram maior impacto sobre a potência do time, cabe destacar a “capacidade de ouvir” por parte dos líderes como um elemento fundamental para a potência do time. Os resultados observados reforçam os conceitos encontrados na literatura, sugerindo que o impacto dos líderes sobre os empregados e os times são mediados por outras variáveis. Além disso, os resultados encontrados podem ser de interesse para as empresas, principalmente na melhoria do desempenho empresarial das organizações.
... Išoriniai veiksniai, nors ir veikia organizaciją netiesiogiai, tačiau ypač svarbūs numatant organizacijos veiklos kryptis ir inovacinės veiklos vystymą. Tikslinga įmonės išorinės aplinkos veiksnių analizė leidžia greičiau prisitaikyti prie aplinkos ir suformuoti organizacijos strategiją (Smollan, 2013;Veveris et al., 2019). ...
The introduction of innovation and the development of innovative activities are particularly important in the agribusiness, as the value added per hour worked in agriculture is currently one of the lowest among other economic activities. Although innovation is one of the most competitive drivers, the slow pace of innovation is due to the fact that businesses are reluctant to take risks until clear and credible long-term practices are in place. The purpose of this article is to determine in which area the representatives of agricultural enterprises are innovating in order to create higher profits. The article presents the concept of innovative activity and agriculture, reviews the complexity of innovative activity, as well as singles out the development trends and peculiarities of innovative activity in the agricultural sector using correlation analysis.
Psychological practices can be accelerated, and their effectiveness can be increased with the help of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Psychology is a subtle science that delves into the nuances of a person’s mental life and emotions, which digital AI cannot fully embrace; however, photonic AI can due to the possibility of considering such nuances of the human’s signals.
This study explores the dimensionality of organizational justice and provides evidence of construct validity for a new justice measure. Items for this measure were generated by strictly following the seminal works in the justice literature. The measure was then validated in 2 separate studies. Study 1 occurred in a university setting, and Study 2 occurred in a field setting using employees in an automobile parts manufacturing company. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a 4-factor structure to the measure, with distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice as distinct dimensions. This solution fit the data significantly better than a 2- or 3-factor solution using larger interactional or procedural dimensions. Structural equation modeling also demonstrated predictive validity for the justice dimensions on important outcomes, including leader evaluation, rule compliance, commitment, and helping behavior.
Resistance to organizational change has too often been portrayed in a limited way, usually as a negative behavioural response of first-level employees. While the academic literature has identified a number of dimensions of resistance, it has not assembled them in one study. Therefore, the aims of this article are firstly to explore resistance to change as a more complex multi-dimensional concept, secondly to examine how actors at various hierarchical levels react to organizational change and thirdly how they construct the meaning of the term resistance. The findings of a qualitative study shed considerable light on the range of ways in which change participants at different levels reacted to a change and how they interpreted their own responses and those of others. © 2011, Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. All rights reserved.
In this article I review studies of resistance to change and advocate new research based on a reconceptualization of individual responses to change as multidimensional attitudes. A challenging question for research and practice arises: How can we balance the organizational need to foster ambivalent attitudes toward change and the individual need to minimize the potentially debilitating effects of ambivalence? I conclude by highlighting the importance of examining the evolution of employee responses to change over time and the need to understand responses to change proposals that emerge from bottom-up, egalitarian change processes.
In this study, we test the assumption that the way target firm employees respond to a takeover is contingent on their national origin.
The antecedents of target firm member trust in the acquiring firm management were examined in a cross-national sample of German and Singaporean employees using a policy-capturing design.
Five factors hypothesized to affect target firm member trust after a takeover were found to be significant influences on employees’ trust judgments in a decision-making simulation: (i) combining firms’ collaboration history, (ii) mode of takeover, (iii) whether it was a domestic or cross-border acquisition, (iv) degree of autonomy removal, and (v) attractiveness of the acquiring firm’s human resource policies and reward system. Further analyses suggest that the relative importance of these factors in predicting target firm employees’ reactions to a takeover varies depending on their national origin.
We conclude that companies engaged in cross-border acquisitions need to consider contingencies in the cultural and institutional contexts in which the acquired firms are embedded and adapt their approaches for integrating them accordingly.
Although trust is an underdeveloped concept in sociology, promising theoretical formulations are available in the recent work
of Luhmann and Barber. This sociological version complements the psychological and attitudinal conceptualizations of experimental
and survey researchers. Trust is seen to include both emotional and cognitive dimensions and to function as a deep assumption
underwriting social order. Contemporary examples such as lying, family exchange, monetary attitudes, and litigation illustrate
the centrality of trust as a sociological reality.
Despite a significant amount of theoretical and empirical attention, the connection between justice and trust remains poorly understood. Our study utilized Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman's (1995) distinction between trustworthiness (the ability, benevolence, and integrity of a trustee) and trust (a willingness to be vulnerable to the trustee) to clarify that connection. More specifically, we drew on a theoretical integration of social exchange theory, the relational model, and fairness heuristic theory to derive predictions about the relationships among justice, trustworthiness, and trust, with supervisors as the referent. A longitudinal field study stretching over two periods showed that informational justice was a significant predictor of subsequent trust perceptions, even when analyses controlled for prior levels of trust and trustworthiness. However, the relationship between justice and trustworthiness was shown to be reciprocal. Procedural and interpersonal justice were significant predictors of subsequent levels of benevolence and integrity, with integrity predicting subsequent levels of all four justice dimensions. We describe the theoretical implications of these results for future research in the justice and trust literatures.