Interpersonal Trust in the Workplace

Introduction/Summary

Leaders or managers have to demonstrate their role in creating and maintaining the interpersonal trust at the workplace. The perception of an individual at the workplace about another is a big factor regarding the interpersonal trust. With the passage of the time, the management of the company intends to identify some key traits or strategies to increase the interpersonal trust and improve the performance of the company (Coxen, van der Vaart, & Stander, 2016). The study revolves around some key strategies that leaders and managers can carry in the firm. These strategies are team bonding activities, openness in the culture, outside work activities, increasing company values, keeping promises and commitments, and training and development. Pertinent to these suggestions or strategies, some justifications have been presented to understand the importance of interpersonal trust in the workplace.

Literature Review

In an organization, the interpersonal trust is necessary to develop, as it leads towards the good collaborations to meet both, personal and organizational goals. The interpersonal trust is a perception in the workplace, which indicates the belief of an individual that no one can harm his interest. Normally, in an organization, the employee has to contain the perception that another person is honest and benevolent. Interestingly, the interpersonal interest exists in the internal business environment. The management of the company intends to make several strategies to enable the trust between co-workers (Frazier, Gooty, Little, & Nelson, 2015). There are several factors, which can be derived from the definition of the interpersonal trust. For Instance, there are several factors, which can create the impact on the interpersonal trust. These factors are the length of the relationship, the reputation of an individual, company size, communication, commitment, behaviors, need of people and different threats. The most important thing that the company management has to carry is to create the cordial environment through enhancing the visibility of interpersonal trust. Also, according to several research studies, the success of the internal business environment is triggered by the target fulfillment, team spirit, and less turnover rate, and of course, it is to be enhanced through creating the interpersonal trust (Heyns & Rothmann, 2015).

Practical Implications& Justifications

Some practical implication has been depicted to create or improve the interpersonal trust in the company. Leaders and organizations are looking to shape some strategies, which can shape the employee behavior in the trust-oriented environment. The elaboration of some key strategies regarding the creation or improvement of interpersonal trust is as under

Team Bonding Activities

Leaders or managers in the company design the team bonding activities along with a schedule. Based on the work nature and culture of the company, it is necessary to make different teams to enhance the collaborations. Employees in the company have to collaborate with each other to understand the behavior, attitudes, and various cultural aspects. Especially in the diverse workforce, the team bonding activities are a power source for the management to enable the interpersonal trust.  For Instance, through team bonding activities, the management eliminates or reduces the gap between employees, which helps to create some space for each other. Team bonding activities help the manager create the internal environment, which is trustworthy. Not only has the exploitation of skills and collaboration, but this strategy also carried the long-term relationship. Thus, trust exists in all these aspects, and the organizational leadership is quite up to it (Coxen, van der Vaart, & Stander, 2016).

Openness in the Culture

In modern organizations, managers intend to create the openness in the culture. For Instance, the management can enable the open discussion policy in the company to allow everyone share, according to thoughts, beliefs, mentality, and perceptions. Interestingly, every employee has a different perception of the company, and through an open discussion or communication, the trust can be increased. The motivation or courage for communication is important to derive perceptions of others in the company (Frazier, Gooty, Little, & Nelson, 2015).

Outside work activities

The culture of the company plays an important role in building the trust among the key stakeholders.  Instead of just focusing on the work, the management usually initiates some outside work activities. In these activities, an individual can understand the behavior of others and perceive different personality insights. When an employee identifies resemblances in behaviors, traits, perceptions, and attitudes, he may depict trust. Ultimately, trust through the outside work activities, assists the management to reduce the resistance of employees when working with different groups and teams. The management can find people, which are contained good relations and understanding and form the group at the workplace. In the end, due to trust and relationship, the goals can be achieved effectively (Guinot, Chiva, & Roca-Puig, 2014).

Increasing company values

To increase the interpersonal trust at the workplace, the management of the company can create some values in the existing culture. The purpose is to make employee increase the sense of belonging and understating in the existing company culture. The role of human resource management is in the limelight on the company, as it shapes the employee behavior according to the cultural values. For Instance, integrity has emerged as prominent organizational values, and it can be justified by the assertiveness of employees to integrate with each other. Of course, the integration with other people is based on trust (Heyns & Rothmann, 2015).

Keeping promises and commitments

Another effective strategy is keeping promises and commitments. For Instance, if a manager is working with his team in the company, team members may have some expectations according to promises and commitments. Thus, creating the pertinent platform for managers in the form to fulfill the promises is a key source of trust. When a manager or worker experiences the fulfillment of promises and commitments, the future mobility can be increased, as far as the interpersonal trust in the firm is concerned.

Training and development

The training and development for people in the firm are imperative to build or maintain the interpersonal trust. In the training process, the management trains employees how to collaborate or identify the best partner when working in different teams. In other words, it can be said that leaders shape the behavior or people, which enables the strong collaboration and trust. The most important thing is to create the positive perception of each other, as it is the best trait for employee bonding (Heyns & Rothmann, 2015).

Additional Justifications

Team bonding activities help employees to work with each other for a long run. The collaboration in different activities regularly can be enhanced through this initiative by the management, and ultimately, it justifies the trust. Also, openness in the culture is the best strategy to recognize each other, and obviously, when an employee recognizes another employee, the trust can be built. Outside work activities motivate the employee to make good relations with others, which is a good trust factor. Through increasing the company values, fulfillment of promise and training and development process can shape the trust-oriented human capital in the company. In the relational dimensions of the human capital, all these initiatives have been streamlined to build the trust and long-term sustainability (Topp & Chipukuma, 2016).

Conclusion

In the end, it is to conclude that the interpersonal trust in a firm can be increased through different relationship considerations by the management.  In this modern and dynamic business era, the internal business environment can be triggered by the success through the successful implementation of strategies. The most important thing is to make internal stakeholders assertive to contribute to the creation or improvement of interpersonal trust in the workplace.

References

Coxen, L., van der Vaart, L., & Stander, M. W. (2016). Authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior in the public healthcare sector: The role of workplace trust. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology; Auckland Park, 42(1), 1-13.

Frazier, M. L., Gooty, J., Little, L. M., & Nelson, D. L. (2015). Employee Attachment: Implications for Supervisor Trustworthiness and Trust. Journal of Business and Psychology; New York, 30(2), 373-386.

Guinot, J., Chiva, R., & Roca-Puig, V. (2014). Interpersonal trust, stress, and satisfaction at work: an empirical study. Personnel Review; Farnborough, 43(1), 96-115.

Heyns, M., & Rothmann, S. (2015). Dimensionality of trust: An analysis of the relations between propensity, trustworthiness, and trust. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology; Auckland Park, 41(1), 1-12.

Topp, S. M., & Chipukuma, J. M. (2016). A qualitative study of the role of the workplace and interpersonal trust in shaping service quality and responsiveness in Zambian primary health centers. Health Policy and Planning; Oxford, 31(2), 192.

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