Expanding the Role of Trust in Organizational Change

Abstract

Trust has a great potential for furtheri ng our understanding of organizational change and learning. This potential however remains largely untapped. It is argued that two reasons as for why this potential remains unrealized are: (i) A narrow conceptualiz ation of change as implementation and (ii) an emphasis on direct and aggregated effect s of individual trust to the exclusion of other effects. It is further suggested that our unde rstanding of the effects of trust on organizational change, should benefit from in cluding effects of trus t on the formulation stage. It should also benefit from exploring the structuring effects of tr ust in organizations. Throughout this chapter, ways to extend curre nt research on trust in organizations are suggested. The chapter also provides examples of relevant contributions where available. In order to capture organizational ef fects of trust, it is suggested that trust should be studied over longer time intervals, and include several referents of trust, spanning both horizontal and vertical relationships in the organization.