The impact of perceived organizational support and trustworthiness on trust

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact that trustworthiness, comprised of ability, benevolence and integrity, and perceived organizational support (POS) have on trust within a call center and warehousing organization.

A total of 105 employees are surveyed using a 37 item instrument to assess the subjects' responses to POS, trustworthiness and trust as well as demographic characteristics.

Results indicate both POS and integrity are positively related to trust. Based upon a usefulness analysis, integrity accounts for a greater amount of incremental variance in trust than POS.

The results are derived from one organization in the southern United States. While a variety of job titles and skill sets are included, the results may not be generalizable to other types of organizations or geographic areas. Also, the relatively low organizational tenure of the employees may limit the development of trust in this organization.

The main implication of this research is that the integrity of the supervisor has significant impact on the formation of trust between the employee and supervisor.

While previously investigated separately as antecedents to trust, this paper provides data on the combined effect of integrity and POS on employee trust within one organization.