| The theoretical purpose of this study was to more thoroughly examine employee perceptions of the dimensions of organizational trust and the trustworthiness of immediate managers. A survey of 481 workers, who represent more than 50 organizations in the Aiken-Augusta-Edgefield Metropolitan Statistical Area in Georgia and South Carolina, was conducted using an instrument that measured both employees' trust in their organization and the trustworthiness of their immediate supervisors. Results from various statistical analyses supported that (a) employees appeared to evaluate dimensions of character-based trust in their organizations in a discriminating way; (b) employees seemed to evaluate dimensions of the trustworthiness of their immediate management in a discriminating way; (c) employee perceptions of the dimensions of trust in their organizations tended to be influenced by a formal human resource character-based development program; (d) employee perceptions of the dimensions of trustworthiness of their immediate manager appeared not to be influenced by a human resource character-based development program; (e) employees seemed to make specific dimensions of trust more prominent than others; (f) an overall factor of employee trust highly correlated with employee job satisfaction levels; and (g) an overall factor of employee trust highly correlated with employee organizational effectiveness. Employee perceptions of trust failed to highly correlate with years of work experience. There was not enough statistical evidence to draw conclusions regarding the relationship between organizational trust and the demographic variables, such as job classification, education, age, and income. |
