Trust, Confidence, and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis

The 2008 global financial crisis has been compared to a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami," a disaster in which the loss of trust and confidence played key precipitating roles and the recovery from which will require the restoration of these crucial factors. Drawing on the analogy between the financial crisis and environmental and technological hazards, recent research on the role of trust and confidence in the latter is used to provide a perspective on the former. Whereas "trust" and "confidence" are used interchangeably and without explicit definition in most discussions of the financial crisis, this perspective uses the TCC model of cooperation to clearly distinguish between the two and to demonstrate how this distinction can lead to an improved understanding of the crisis. The roles of trust and confidence—both in precipitation and in possible recovery—are discussed for each of the three major sets of actors in the crisis, the regulators, the banks, and the public. The roles of trust and confidence in the larger context of risk management are also examined; trust being associated with political approaches, confidence with technical. Finally, the various stances that government can take with regard to trust—such as supportive or skeptical—are considered. Overall, it is argued that a clear understanding of trust and confidence and a close examination of the specific, concrete circumstances of a crisis—revealing when either trust or confidence is appropriate—can lead to useful insights for both recovery and prevention of future occurrences.     

Test of a Trust and Confidence Model in the Applied Context of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Risks

Trust is an important factor in risk management. There is little agreement among researchers, however, on how trust in risk management should be studied. Based on a comprehensive review of the trust literature a "dual-mode model of social trust and confidence" is proposed. Trust and confidence are separate but, under some circumstances, interacting sources of cooperation. Trust is based on value similarity, and confidence is based on performance. According to our model, judging similarity between an observer's currently active values and the values attributed to others determines social trust. Thus, the basis for trust is a judgment that the person to be trusted would act as the trusting person would. Interpretation of the other's performance influences confidence. Both social trust and confidence have an impact on people's willingness to cooperate (e.g., accept electromagnetic fields or EMF in the neighborhood). The postulated model was tested in the applied context of EMF risks. Structural equation modeling procedures and data from a random sample of 1,313 Swiss citizens between 18 and 74 years old were used. Results indicated that after minor modifications the model explained the data very well. In the applied context of EMF risks, both trust and confidence had an impact on cooperation. Results suggest that the dual-mode model of social trust and confidence could be used as a common framework in the field of trust and risk management. Practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Marginal Trust in Risk Managers: Building and Losing Trust Following Decisions Under Uncertainty

Although a considerable amount of research has examined correlates of baseline public trust in risk managers, much less research has looked at marginal changes in public trust following specific events. Such research is important for identifying what kinds of events will lead to increases and decreases in public trust and thus for understanding how trust is built and lost. Using a taxonomy based upon signal detection theory (SDT), the current article presents two experimental studies examining marginal trust change following eight different types of events. Supporting predictions, cautious decisionmakers who accepted signs of danger (Hits and False Alarms) were more likely to be trusted than those who rejected them (All Clears and Misses). Moreover, transparency about an event was associated with higher levels of marginal trust than a lack of transparency in line with earlier findings. Contrary to predictions, however, trust was less affected by whether the decisions were correct (i.e., Hits and All Clears) or incorrect (i.e., False Alarms and Misses). This finding was primarily due to a "False Alarm Effect" whereby Open False Alarms led to positive increases in trust despite being incorrect assessments of risk. Results are explained in terms of a cue diagnosticity account of impression formation and suggest that a taxonomy of event types based on SDT may be useful in furthering our understanding of how public trust in risk managers is gained and lost.     

Repairing and Enhancing Trust: Approaches to Reducing Organizational Trust Deficits

Abstract

Organizational scholars have long touted the myriad benefits of trust for organizational functioning and performance. Recent surveys, however, document pervasive deficits in such trust. This article addresses the important topic of reducing these deficits. Our attack on this problem is two pronged. First, we examine approaches to repairing damaged trust within organizational settings. Specifically, we assess the state of organizational theory and knowledge regarding effective approaches to trust repair after internal or external events have weakened or damaged trust in an organization. We define what is meant by trust repair, review the most common ways that trust is broken, and then explore the three major approaches that have received the most attention in trust‐repair research. We then address the question of how trust, once repaired, can be enhanced and made more durable and stable. Specifically, we examine theory and evidence regarding the antecedent conditions that support the development and maintenance of what we term presumptive trust among organizational members. We conclude the article with some recommendations of fruitful directions for future research.     

Restoring Trust in American Corporations: Addressing the Root Cause

Journal of Management and Governance -     

Benchmark Analysis: Shopping with Proper Confidence

We discuss the issue of using benchmark doses for quantifying (excess) risk associated with exposure to environmental hazards. The paradigm of low-dose risk estimation in dose-response modeling is used as the primary application scenario. Emphasis is placed on making simultaneous inferences on benchmark doses when data are in the form of proportions, although the concepts translate easily to other forms of outcome data.     

Trust: Missing Piece(s) in the Safety Puzzle

While trust is increasingly recognized as a factor that impacts on safety behavior, the exact nature of trust and its role in shaping organizational safety is poorly understood. This special issue contains six articles that examine the relationship between trust and safety behavior in a range of high-risk work contexts. The issue begins with two articles that introduce the complex nature of trust and the positive and negative roles that trust can play in shaping an organization's safety culture. This background is then developed by two articles that explore the role of trust and distrust in safety performance, and uncover a range of significant but often counterintuitive relationships between forms of trust and safe behavior. Finally, the issue concludes with two articles that examine the role that leadership may play in developing trust. These articles examine the conditions important for the development of trust in leaders, and the trust-promoting actions that leaders can employ to influence employees' engagement in safety participation.     

创始爱心资金获取：情感信任还是能力信任

创始资金是新创企业开展创业活动的关键资源,但由于新创弱性和缺乏有效的市场记录,创业者不得不更多寻求非正式制度的社会网络支持,来自家人和朋友的爱心资金是对正式金融机构融资制度的重要补充和替代。已有研究大多将爱心资金与爱和情感联系起来,忽视理性因素的考虑。结合中国的制度文化情景,建立基于情感信任和理性信任的爱心资金获取整合模型,深化创业资金获取的社会网络和制度理论分析。基于2009年至2011年中国新生创业活动动态跟踪调研数据进行实证分析,采用Probit回归方法对社会网络、制度环境、创业活跃度和爱心资金之间关系进行理论分析和实证检验,进一步考察爱心资金结构差异对创业绩效的影响。研究结果表明,情感信任与能力信任的交互作用与爱心资金存在正相关关系,制度环境对情感信任与能力信任的交互作用与爱心资金的关系存在负向调节,创业活跃度则呈现正向调节。研究结论拓展和深化了创业社会网络的分析框架,将情感和理性因素结合起来,突破了已有研究对于血缘的利他主义和朋友的道义责任的情感性单一解释。     

中国创业背景中的信任

本文通过分析创业背景和一般意义上信任概念的差异,以及创业背景下中西方信任概念的差异,根据创业过程思路和多层次多维度思路,提出了中国创业背景中的信任构思。在企业家个体层面上包含特殊信任和普遍信任两个维度,在组织层面上包含基于声誉、特征、制度的信任三个维度。在创业的不同阶段,不同层面上的信任具体内涵和维度会表现出不同的内容。最后根据访谈研究的结果提出了初步结论。     

Research on innovation in organizations: Distinguishing innovation-generating from innovation-adopting organizations

Research on innovation in organizations has generally examined the differences in the characteristics of innovative and non-innovative organizations, an endeavor that has often produced inconsistent results. In this paper, we propose that future research may resolve those inconsistencies by incorporating in the theory the differences between organizations that mostly generate innovations and those that mostly adopt innovations. We refer to the former, which are primarily producers or suppliers of innovation, as innovation-generating organizations, and to the latter, which are preponderantly users of innovations produced by innovation-generating organizations, as innovation-adopting organizations. Building on the notion that the processes of generating and adopting innovation are distinct phenomena that are facilitated by different organizational conditions, we discuss how the distinction between innovation-generating and innovation-adopting organizations would contribute to clarifying several inconsistent research findings, such as the relationship between innovation and size, the role of innovation radicalness, and the selection of appropriate measures of innovation.     

Understanding Consumer Confidence in the Safety of Food: Its Two-Dimensional Structure and Determinants

Understanding of the determinants of consumer confidence in the safety of food is important if effective risk management and communication are to be developed. In the research reported here, we attempt to understand the roles of consumer trust in actors in the food chain and regulators, consumer recall of food safety incidents, consumer perceptions regarding the safety of particular product groups, personality characteristics, and sociodemographics, as potential determinants of consumer confidence in the safety of food. Consumer confidence in the safety of food was conceptualized as consisting of two distinct dimensions, namely, "optimism" and "pessimism." On the basis of a representative sample of 657 Dutch consumers, structural equation modeling was applied to simultaneously estimate the effect of the determinants on both "optimism" and "pessimism." The results indicated that, to a considerable extent, both optimism and pessimism about the safety of food arise from consumer trust in regulators and actors in the food chain and the perceived safety of meat and fish rather than other product categories. In addition, support was found for the notion that optimism and pessimism are conceptually distinct, as these dimensions of confidence were partly influenced by different determinants. The results of this study imply that consumer confidence in the safety of food could be enhanced by improving both consumer trust in societal actors, and consumer safety perceptions of particular product groups.     

Trust in leadership: A multi-level review and integration

Leaders have been argued to play a key role in determining organizational effectiveness across all levels (e.g., individual, team, unit) that exist within organizations. A key component in a leader's ability to be effective within such environments is the degree to which subordinates and co-workers trust him/her. Therefore, it is not surprising that researchers and practitioners alike are interested in identifying the mechanisms through which trust in leadership can be developed as well as those factors which moderate this relationship [e.g., Gillespie, N. A., Mann, L. (2004). Transformational leadership and shared values: The building blocks of trust. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19, 588–607; Kouzes and Posner, 1995; Roberts, K. H., O'Reilly, C. A. (1974). Failures in upward communication in organizations: Three possible culprits. Academy of Management Journal, 17, 205–215; Whitener, E. M. (1997). The impact of human resource activities on employee trust. Human Resource Management Review, 7, 389–404]. Despite this, research that has addressed the factors that foster trust in leaders and the outcomes of this trust has been disjointed and, as yet, no comprehensive model has been presented to systematically examine these factors. Therefore, the purpose of this article will be to present an integrative model of trust in leadership.     

Trust in Islamic Business-to-Business Relationships: Evidence from Indonesia

We examine the role of trust within Islamic culture in business-to-business relationships by exploring the link between credit officers’ trust in business customers and their financing decisions. In line with our framework, which is based on the fact that Islamic culture is characterized by a collectivistic approach and clan-based social structure, we find that value-based trust is more important than competence-based trust in explaining business relationships. The results support the argument that Islamic culture business relationships are grounded more on the principles, values and norms that a partner brings to the relationship than on business skills. Our results are robust to endogeneity and multilevel issues.     

基于遗传算法的分辨系数的优化方法

灰关联分析中分辨系数的选取会影响到分析结果的信息分辨程度,甚至灰关联序。把遗传算法和差异信息熵理论结合给出了优化分辨系数的方法。此方法把分辨系数作为优化变量,关联度序列的熵最小为优化目标,利用遗传算法的优化机制获得优化的分辨系数。最后,给出了一个计算实例。     

Difficulties in the transition from clinician to manager

Medical clinicians have for many years been managers. However, this management role has most often been in groups of other clinicians and other health personnel. Only recently have increasing numbers of medical clinicians been asked to accept responsibilities for managing hospital and health services divisions that carry financial and administrative responsibility in addition to traditional clinical responsibility. In these circumstances, it is appropriate to seek to gather information about the various issues that surround the transition from clinician to manager in a systematic way and to begin to explore the issue and any actions that might be taken to ameliorate transitional problems. Such a study was undertaken by the School of Health Services Management at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and is reported in this article.     

Promoting Public Trust in Public Organizations: Explaining the Role of Public Accountability

This paper is aimed at explaining the role of public accountability in promoting public trust in public organizations. Initially a conceptual model was developed. Then, the model was tested empirically in Iran. The result shows that public accountability influences the public trust by improving citizens’ satisfaction. In other words, legal, ethical, financial, functional, and utmost political accountability affect public trust through influencing citizens’ satisfaction. This study also confirms that changes in social trust, citizens’ trust in government, and media will moderate trust in public organizations.

企业内部信用问题的博弈分析

企业内部信用是企业存在的基础,一个良好的企业内部信用氛围,在企业管理中起着非常重要的作用.本文通过分析企业内部管理层与职员的背信行为,构建了管理层与职员在绩效评价过程中的博弈模型,得出(背信,背信)的结果.从而说明,应采取措施,使得管理层与职员在博弈中采取(守信,守信)的策略.