November 13, 2024
Trust plays a critical role in fostering cooperation and productive relationships within industrial relations. In the context of employment, trust is fundamental to relationships between employers, unions, and employees, supporting collaboration, negotiation, and effective collective bargaining. The complex nature of trust arises from its roots in both contractual agreements and the power imbalances within the employer-employee relationship. This complexity is further heightened by differing values, expectations, and external factors such as public interests, regulatory demands, and media attention.
This analysis illuminates how trust operates across industrial relations, underpinning both the challenges and the potential for transformative, durable alliances in the workplace.
Trust can be understood as a two-part concept: an expectation of positive outcomes and a willingness to be vulnerable. Mayer et al. (1995) define trust as the willingness to be vulnerable to another party’s actions, based on the belief that they will act in one’s best interest, even when unsupervised. Similarly, Robinson (1996) emphasizes the expectation that actions will not result in harm to the trustor.
These perspectives reveal that trust encompasses a psychological state, an individual’s propensity to trust, and perceived trustworthiness, which is based on ability, benevolence, and integrity. According to Mayer et al., ability refers to the trustee’s knowledge and expertise within a specific domain, benevolence reflects a genuine care for the trustor, and integrity involves a consistent adherence to principles that encourage reliability.
Trust takes multiple forms, ranging from deterrence-based to relational-based trust, and spans a spectrum from distrust to strong relational trust.
– Deterrence-based trust is the weakest form, relying on consistent behavior driven by potential penalties for breach.
– Calculus-based trust, slightly stronger, is grounded in a calculation where parties weigh short-term benefits against long-term gains, often seen in strategic partnerships.
– Knowledge-based trust is grounded in familiarity, experience, and shared understanding and develops through ongoing interactions, enabling parties to anticipate each other’s actions.
– Relational-based trust, the strongest form, is built on the quality of the relationship between individuals. It emerges from emotional bonds and reciprocal care.
These variations illustrate how trust in industrial relations ranges from purely transactional to deeply interpersonal.
Power plays a key role in trust-building, particularly where there are hierarchical disparities. For instance, high-power individuals may find it easier to trust due to reduced personal risk, while low-power individuals experience greater vulnerability. This imbalance is further examined in the work of Korczynski (2000), who shows that trust is influenced by both institutional and individual factors, creating differing outcomes in high-trust versus low-trust economies.
Power dynamics not only shape trust levels but also have a critical role in how trust violations and repairs occur. Trust violations occur when one party fails to meet the expectations or commitments that another party has placed in them, while trust repair refers to the process of restoring or rebuilding trust after it has been damaged or violated.
As not inherently opposites, trust and distrust can coexist within relationships. Lewicki and Wiethoff’s framework proposes that trust and distrust can occur in various combinations, allowing for nuanced relationships. For example, a union and an employer may trust each other regarding safety agreements but distrust each other’s stance on wage negotiations.
High trust/low distrust environments encourage collaboration, while high trust/high distrust situations, where parties closely monitor each other’s actions, may introduce tension. Mutual trust remains central for enduring partnerships, fostering open communication and shared risks.
In industrial relations, trust is foundational to achieving effective shared decision-making and long-term, mutually beneficial outcomes. The interaction between trust and distrust, the influence of power imbalances, and the management of trust violations are key to maintaining resilient industrial relations.
Recognizing and addressing these factors helps establish cohesive, productive work environments and enhances the potential for positive outcomes in industrial relations and collective bargaining. Understanding trust within national and sectoral industrial relations frameworks is essential to creating strong, adaptable partnerships and advancing cooperative work practices.
Source: Bengt Larsson, Margaret Heffernan & Aurora Trif (2024), Preliminary conceptual and contextual report.
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