| Considerable research has explored interpersonal trust within the workplace using the Integrative Model of Organizational Trust; however, the majority of this research has focused on trust in supervisors, and very few have used the model to explore supervisors' trust in their subordinates. Given the fundamental differences between supervisors-subordinates relationships, and subordinates-supervisors relationships, an understanding of trust development for each of these unique relationships is needed. The purpose of the current study was to examine trust development in supervisors and subordinates relationships; specifically to determine if there was a relationship between ability, benevolence, integrity, and trust in both relationships as described in LMX Theory. This study focused on a main research question; is a supervisor's trust of subordinates and a subordinate's trust of the supervisor associated with the trustworthiness components of ability, benevolence, and integrity? 79 supervisors and 111 subordinates were surveyed to determine the relationship between supervisor-subordinate trust, and ability, benevolence, and integrity. Correlation and Multiple Regression analyses were used to analyze the instrument results of the quantitative instruments that surveyed supervisors and subordinates in two manufacturing organizations. Correlation analyses indicated that ability, benevolence, and integrity are related to trust in supervisor-subordinate and subordinate-supervisor relationships. Multiple regression analyses in this study also confirmed that there was a relationship between trust and ability, benevolence, and integrity in both relationships. |
