The Tree of Trust: Trust between Managers and Employee Representatives in Organizational Social Dialogue

The central topic of this thesis is trust in organizations. In organizational and industrial relations, one of the main aspects that leads to cooperation and that also derives from cooperation, is trust. For that reason, trust has been studied extensively in the organizational context. Surprisingly little attention has been given to trust, it's antecedents and its consequences in the relation between employee representatives (ERs) and management. Thus, the focus of this thesis is on trust and trustworthiness in the context of industrial relations, especially at organizational level. The research objectives of this dissertation are the following: a) to gain an overview of the literature on trust between these parties at organizational level; b) to gain an understanding of the perception of employers of the attitudes and behaviors of employee representatives, as well as their relationship with them; c) to explore the relation between several antecedents and consequences of trust; and d) To investigate the relation between investment by management in ERs and trust. These four objectives are addressed in four studies forming the core of the present PhD. We start with an introductory chapter, motivating the scientific and societal relevance of this dissertation, and we conclude with a general discussion. Chapter two contains the outcomes of a systematic literature review. Chapter three presents a first empirical study among 614 HR managers from 11 European countries, exploring the experiences and expectations of employers about the attitudes and competences of employee representatives, as well as the challenges for social partners and differences within Europe in terms of social dialogue. Chapter four presents another empirical article with the data the previous study. It examines the relations between trustworthiness, trust and influence of ERs from the perspective of European management. Chapter five, which uses quantitative data from 719 ERs in Spain, investigates the perceptions of ERs on the investment of companies in their role and how that affects constituency trust and ERs forcing conflict behavior. Finally, the general discussion presents an overview of the findings, the strengths and weaknesses of the dissertation, as well as theoretical and practical implications.Table of Contents Chapter 1. General introduction 1 1. 1. Trust between employee representatives and management in organizational social dialogue 2 1. 2. Innovation, scientific objectives and research questions of the project 4 1. 3. Overview of the main variables 5 1. 4. Design and methodology 10 1. 5. Structure of the thesis 11 References 13 Chapter 2. State of the art: Trust and conflict management in organizational industrial relations 19 2. 1. Introduction: trust and conflict management 20 2. 2. Defining trust: the long-term perspective 22 2. 3. Defining conflict and conflict management 24 2. 4. Conflict management theories 25 2. 5. Conglomerate conflict behavior theory 26 2. 6. Trust and conflict management in the context of industrial relations: a review 27 2. 7. Trust in the context of industrial relations 32 2. 8. Conflict management in the context of industrial relations 33 2. 9. Studies addressing both conflict management and trust 35 2. 10. Conclusions and future research 38 References 40 Chapter 3. Improving social dialogue: what employers expect from employee representatives 49 3. 1. Social dialogue in Europe: changing dynamics. 51 3. 2. Relevant factors in studying the experience and expectations of employers on ERs 56 3. 3. Participants and procedure 59 3. 4. Results and Discussion 60 3. 5. Implications for the improvement of social dialogue 65 3. 7. Limitations and future research 67 3. 8. Conclusion 68 References 69 Chapter 4. Trustworthiness and influence in organizational decision-making by employee representatives 77 4. 1. Introduction 78 4. 2. Method 85 4. 3. Results 87 4. 4. Discussion 89 4. 5. Conclusion 93 References 94 Chapter 5. Investing in employee representatives pays off. The relation between investment in ERs, perceived constituency trust and forcing by employee representatives 101 5. 1. Introduction 102 5. 2. Method 110 5. 3. Results 111 5. 4. Discussion 112 5. 5. Conclusion 116 References 117 Chapter 6. General discussion 129 6. 1. Findings with respect to the formulated research questions 131 6. 2. Strengths and weaknesses 136 6. 3. Theoretical and practical implications 138 6. 4. Overall conclusion 142 6. 5. Final remarks 142 References 144 General list of references 149nrpages: 189status: publishe