The Role and perception of Organizational Trust -a Case Study

Abstract

Background and discussion of the problem: Over the last decade, a jumble of corporate scandals has occurred. Though they derive from different backgrounds, it can be argued that they have one common factor; violations of trust. Given this, trust plays an important role in today’s organizations and earlier research has shown that it in many cases is found to be a strong connection between trust and control. The finance sector is explained as a typical arena where trust is open to abuse, and considering it’s low trustworthiness in general, it is highly relevant and it is a topic of current interest to further investigate trust in this context. Question: How is trust experienced and what role does it have in a large Swedish company operating in the finance sector? Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to study the phenomenon trust and how individuals at different managing positions in one large Swedish company operating in the finance sector, perceives trust. The key area is to present previous research about trust in order to give an overall picture of this multidimensional term. Further, focus will be to link the theories and models to individuals working in the organization and their view on trust. Limitations: The essay is a case study and the results and conclusions will by no certainty be applicable on all companies operating in the finance sector. Further, the data collected is restricted to information from five individuals working at the head office at the case company. Method: This is a qualitative and descriptive case study with a hermeneutic approach. Secondary data in forms of books and articles have been used in the theoretical framework. The empirics are based on primary data collected from interviews with five respondents working at the case company. Results: The overall perception of trust in the case company is found to be high and trust has an important role. Control systems are rarely used since the organization is mostly managed by trust where openness, participation and engagement are argued to be key words. Some areas for improvement were found, including openness, communication and effectiveness in the decision-process. In addition, it is shown that a too high level of trust can exist. Finally, the authors found two new components (responsiveness and stress) that can be added when measuring trust. They have been put together with five components (competence, common values, concern, consistency and openness) from earlier research, and form a new model for measuring trust.