Trust is defined as “a psychological state consisting of the intention to accept
vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behaviors of
another” (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998: 395). Many studies of trust are
based on social exchange theory, which refers to “voluntary actions of individuals
that are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring and, typically, do in fact
bring from others” (Blau, 1964: 277). Social exchange is based on the norm of
reciprocity, which specifies that one should help and not hurt those who have helped
oneself (Gouldner, 1960). Dirks and Ferrin (2002) refer to the principles of social
exchange to explain the willingness of employees to reciprocate the care and
consideration that their leaders express toward them in their relationships. This
relationship goes beyond the economic contract in the way that the parties operate on
the basis of trust, goodwill, and the perception of mutual obligation (Blau, 1964).
This kind of exchange denotes a high-quality relationship, and the issues of care and
consideration are most essential (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002).
Researchers suggest that when the degree of trust is high, individuals are
generally more likely to engage in social exchange and co-operative interaction
(Gambetta, 1988; Klimoski & Karol, 1976; Kramer & Tyler, 1996). Dirks and Ferrin
(2002) present the first systematic review of empirical evidence for the antecedents
and consequences of trust. In their framework for trust in leadership that was
proposed in the meta-analysis, the consequences of trust include organizational
K.W. Chan et al.
citizenship behavior (OCB), job performance, job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, intention to quit, goal commitment, belief in information, satisfaction
with leader, and leader–member exchange. This leads to the conclusion that trust in a
supervisor is important for the positive job outcomes of subordinates.
Trust in leaders is significantly related to various forms of leadership behavior or
managerial styles, such as transformational leadership, interactional justice, and
participative decision-making (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). Transformational leadership is
found to have the strongest relationship (r=0.72) among all of the antecedents in the
framework of trust (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). A theoretical model of transformational
leadership suggests four key dimensions, namely charisma, inspirational motivation,
individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation (Bass, 1985). In the
dimension of individualized consideration, leaders express concern for followers
and take account of their individual needs. It is suggested that such forms of
leadership behavior, which demonstrate individualized concern and respect, gain the
trust of followers and result in desirable outcomes (Jung & Avolio, 2000; Podsakoff,
MacKenzie, & Bommer, 1996). Interactional justice is found to be the third strongest
antecedent in the trust framework (r=0.65). It is argued that interactional justice
involves the degree of respect with which a leader treats his/her followers, and thus
sends a strong signal about the nature of the relationship by which subordinates
would make inferences about their degree of trust towards the manager (Dirks &
Ferrin, 2002). Participative decision-making, another major antecedent of trust in the
meta-analysis framework, sends a message about the leader’s confidence in, and
concern and respect for, subordinates, which affects subordinate’s perceptions of
elements of a leader’s character, such as fairness (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). Studies of
interpersonal trust have pointed to the importance of communication between
trustors (Mayer et al., 1995; Whitener, Brodt, Korsgaard, & Werner, 1998). In terms
of the supervisor–subordinate relationship, researchers have contended that open
communication between employees and management is a crucial factor in fostering
the trust of employees in management (Gilbert & Tang, 1998; Mishra & Morrissey,
1990). Therefore, participative decision-making, which shows care and support and
requires open communication between manager and subordinate, becomes a major
antecedent of trust.
In summary, we can conclude that managerial behavior that shows care and respect
for subordinates, as well as open communication, are important factors in fostering
trust in the relationship, which are found in transformational leadership, interactional
justice and participative decision-making. Nevertheless, these same characteristics
match perfectly well with another important leader’s behavior—cooperative CMS.
Managers who use cooperative CMS show a high level of concern and respect for
others. To understand and fulfill the needs of others, open communication is also
necessary. Therefore, it seems that cooperative CMS shares the characteristics with
transformational leadership, interactional justice, and participative decision-making,
which are major antecedents of trust in the framework of the meta-analysis.
Based on the above discussion, we argue that employees may observe how they
are treated by a manager in conflict situations in the workplace to make inferences
about their degree of trust towards the manager as part of the social exchange
process, which, in turn, influences their work attitudes and behavior. Based on social
exchange theory, when employees perceive that the cooperative CMS of a manager
Managers’ conflict management styles and employee attitudinal outcomes: The mediating role of trust
(integrating, obliging, and compromising) shows that they are being valued and
cared for, their trusting relationship will be enhanced. With this trusting relationship,
employees will reciprocate by displaying positive work attitudes, including higher
job satisfaction and lower turnover intention. In fact, a study of self-directed work
teams has provided evidence that trust in supervisor mediates the relationship
between a leader’s individualized support behavior and an employee’s satisfaction
with work (Butler, Cantrell, & Flick, 1999).
In this study, employee job attitudinal outcomes, including job satisfaction and
turnover intention, are chosen as dependant variables. These two job outcomes were
found to demonstrate the strongest relationships with trust in leadership in the metaanalysis
review (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). Number of studies has established an
empirical relationship between trust and job satisfaction (Brashear, Boles, Bellenger,
& Brooks, 2003; Driscoll, 1978; Lagace, 1991; Rich, 1997) as well as employee
turnover intention (Aryee, Budhwar, & Chen, 2002; Costigan, Ilter, & Berman,
1998; H. Tan & C. S. Tan, 2000). Recent research has further supported that
increased trust in supervisors is negatively related to employee turnover intention.
(e.g., Brashear et al., 2003; Connell, Ferres, & Travaglione, 2003; Mulki, Jaramillo, &
Locander, 2006).