| Prior research indicates that perceptions of others' trustworthiness are linked to perceptions of the others' behaviors, including their decisions. Organizational decision-makers may try to bolster stakeholders' perceptions of decision-makers' trustworthiness by relying on formal decision criteria (rules and policies) more than on informal decision criteria (culture and tradition) when making decisions that could be perceived as controversial. The present study examined the effects of decision criteria formality and decision controversy on perceptions of the importance of decision criteria among college students (N = 140) who were randomly assigned to assume the role of decision-makers or decision evaluators (stakeholders). Decision-makers acted as student regents on a university board. Decision-evaluators evaluated program cut decisions previously made by the board. I predicted that both groups would prefer formal versus informal decision criteria when decisions were more versus less controversial, but that decision-makers would do so to a higher degree than decision-evaluators. Results indicated that participants generally considered formal decision criteria to be more important than informal criteria, that the criteria were considered more important when decisions were more rather than less controversial, and that decision-evaluators generally considered the criteria to be more important than did decision-makers. Consistent with a previously untested assumption in the literature, decision-evaluators preferred formal over informal decision criteria when decisions were more rather than less controversial more than did decision-makers. Keywords: trust, formal decision criteria, informal decision criteria, control mechanisms. |
