Refuting the Cliché of the Distrustful Manager

Sabine Hommelhoff and David Richter

No 871, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: Although trust is fundamental to social and organizational functioning, the media often portray managers as distrusting, suggesting that distrust of others is a typical personality variable of successful leaders. This study puts the cliché of the distrustful manager to the test. Both selfreport data (N = 32,926) and behavioral data (N = 924) from the German Socio-Economic Panel refute this cliché. Analyses reveal that individuals in managerial positions neither show a lower level of trust before, nor a systematic reduction in trust after attaining such positions. Moreover, analyses demonstrate that managers are generally more trusting than non-managers. This selection effect implies that individuals who trust others are more successful in achieving managerial positions than their less trusting counterparts.

Keywords: management; trust; distrust; trust game; panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 p.
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
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Journal Article: Refuting the cliché of the distrustful manager (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp871

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