Handbook of Advances in Trust Research

Citation

Steven Lockey (2016), "Handbook of Advances in Trust Research", Personnel Review, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 448-450. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2015-0214

The purpose of this handbook is to synthesise the latest developments in trust research. To do this, the editors structure it into sub-themes, with each of the five parts reflecting a particular theme. The first four parts focus on a particular level of analysis, starting at the interpersonal and moving up through the levels to societal trust and trust repair. Finally, Part five relates to theoretical advances in trust research. This levels-of-analysis structure makes a lot of sense both conceptually and in terms of providing the reader with a clear path that enables them to read through the book section by section or to focus on parts that are of particular interest.

Part 1 focuses on trust at the interpersonal level, beginning with Searle’s (Chapter 1) review of the literature of trust and HRM. She discusses the role of the HR function and managers in developing organisational trust, and also the inverse relation of how perceived organisational trustworthiness can impact on the development of HR strategies and policies. A particularly interesting point is that HR strategy as devised by the HR function, may be implemented differently by line managers and perceived differently still by employees, and that “distortion” is possible at each stage of the process. This is particularly useful for practitioners at various levels, reminding them of the need for cross-team collaboration.

In Chapter 2, Lewicki and Polin provide a thorough overview of trust in the negotiation process. Here, the authors discuss different types of trust, the facets of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence and integrity), and review a number of trust repair strategies. Although explicitly anchored in negotiation, this provides a fine basis for practitioners involved in any organisational activity to understand how trust develops and how it can be repaired. Furthermore, scholars and students who are less familiar with some of the conceptualisations of trust and trust repair strategies are likely to find this chapter very useful.

Part 2 consists of three chapters that deal with trust and governance. Weibel and Six (Chapter 3) begin this section by discussing trust, control and intrinsic motivation, providing a conceptual framework in which hierarchical controls lead to self-determination and higher employee intrinsic motivation to cooperate, which in turn leads to greater trust.

Vlaar (Chapter 4) considers trust and contracts, and provides perhaps the most valuable insights, for scholars at least, in the entire book. He states that the relationship between trust and contracts may not actually be as strong as suggested by extant research, as they are each influenced by a number of shared antecedents that may conflate the relationship between them. As such, direct effects may be overestimated and partial mediation effects may be underestimated. As with Chapter 3, although discussion revolves around the relations and boundary conditions between trust and contracts, the concerns raised may be equally applicable to relations between trust and other constructs (or indeed, between concepts at the core of trust research, such as vulnerability and willingness to be vulnerable, see: Nienaber et al., 2015). As such, scholars would be wise to consider them when designing studies.

Noteboom (Chapter 5) investigates trust and innovation. The concept of “cognitive distance”, which entails “difference in cognition in the narrow sense of knowledge but also difference in perceptions and views of values, ethics and morality” (p. 108) is central to the author’s discussion, as although greater cognitive distance may mean that people and firms understand each other less, it also provides an opportunity for learning and innovation. Having a high level of trust in a partner is desirable because it enables organisations to operate at a greater level of cognitive distance from each other. The idea of control is broached again, as keeping partners in a “conceptual prison” by demanding exclusivity may lead to a lack of innovation.

All chapters in this section deal, to some extent, with the issue of control. Whereas Part 1 appeared to be particularly relevant to practitioners, the majority of the content of Part 2, and many of the chapters that follow, are more likely to be of use to scholars.

Part 3 considers inter-organisational trust. Poppo (Chapter 6) reviews inter-organisational trust, providing a call to redirect the way it is studied and measured. She suggests that behavioural measures or multiple respondents should be used as survey measures are predominant, and that boundary conditions must be given greater consideration. Moreover, the issues of monitoring, structure and control are raised once again.

Li (Chapter 7) provides a complex but intriguing framework that focuses on inter-cultural trust. He bemoans the lack of extant inter-cultural studies, claiming that the majority of research involving the interaction between trust and culture is intra-cultural in nature. Li argues that cultural distance, cultural interface and adaptive learning form the core of his framework, and that inter-cultural trust and trust building must be considered from the perspective of a “yin-yang” balance, suggesting the necessity of viewing trust as a process, in which “paradoxes, dilemmas and dichotomies can be reformed into dualities by way of a curvilinear pattern” (p. 150).

Part 4 moves to the consideration of societal trust and trust repair. Gillespie and Hurley (Chapter 9) explain how a lack of trust and the facets that make up the characteristics of trustworthiness led to a systematic failure at numerous levels and within a number of institutions, resulting in the global financial crisis. They then discuss how trust can be repaired in the financial sector. I believe this chapter would be particularly useful for practitioners as it provides a compelling narrative about an event that most people have heard of and understand to at least some degree, and it also offers advice regarding how to attempt to repair trust in a complex structure. In this respect, as with Chapters 3 and 4, the content of this chapter can be adapted to other contexts.

Harris, Keevil and Wicks (Chapter 10) discuss public trust in the institution of business, with the public being considered as an aggregation of stakeholder groups, and the institution of business considered as all business as opposed to a specific organisation or industry. They then discuss how public trust in business could be measured, arguing that single item measures of trust are not sufficient and that behavioural and implicit measures may be fruitful avenues for future research.

Finally, Part 5 deals with theoretical advances in trust research. Nickerson, Gubler and Dirks (Chapter 10) explore trust in relation to the economic theory of the firm, and how different kinds of formal governance structures can be conducive to or inhibit trust building and repair, and indeed to what extent different structures actually require trust.

Kroeger (Chapter 11) discusses the notion that trust can be institutionalised, explaining how it can transformed into a long-term, collaborative process through the use of symbols and structure, even when an institution’s agents are replaced.

In Chapter 12, Möllering concludes the book with a discussion of trust as a process. He outlines the need to steer away from studying trust solely as an outcome to understanding the notion of trusting; considering how interventions change the way people trust, rather than simply investigating whether the level of trust has increased or decreased as a result.

The Handbook of Advances in Trust Research represents a valuable resource for trust scholars, practitioners and anyone with an interest in the concept of trust in organisations. Chapters range in complexity, and there is content to satisfy different consumers; from students new to the literature to experienced researchers. Practitioners are likely to find overviews of the different strands of research to be interesting and applicable to their own organisations, and the societal commentary regarding trust and the financial crisis offers both a warning and advice to organisations regarding the importance of trust, how it can be damaged and what can be done to repair it. For students and academics, the methodological and theoretical advances proposed are sure to be of particular interest, and some of the chapters provide useful refreshers in terms of some of the fundamental concepts that underlie trust research. There are some areas that were under-explored, but then, as the editors note in their introduction, it is impossible to cover the entire state of a literature in a 300-page handbook.

Overall, this is an interesting and relevant publication. Central themes of control, monitoring, structure and process intertwine across chapters, making it a coherent, balanced piece of work that reflects the efforts of the trust community to pull towards more convergent conceptualisations and measurement after a number of objections regarding the fragmented nature of prior research.