Building and Leveraging Interpersonal Trust Within and Across MNE Subsidiaries: A Social Exchange Perspective
Christine Lai,
Barjinder Singh,
Abdullah A. Alshwer and
Margaret A. Shaffer
Journal of International Management, 2014, vol. 20, issue 3, 312-326
Abstract:
To understand how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can make the most of an integrated global workforce, we draw upon social exchange theory to examine the antecedents and consequences of interpersonal trust among co-located and cross-border employees. With data from employees of three Greater China subsidiaries of an MNE, we assess the effects of (1) social exchange variables on two forms of interpersonal trust, (2) interpersonal trust on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), and (3) individualism/collectivism as a moderator. Reflecting the complex nature of interpersonal trust, our results offer mixed support for our hypotheses. On one hand, a majority of our hypotheses support our contention regarding the positive influence of social exchange in the development of interpersonal trust, and further, in the enactment of OCBs. On the other hand, some of our hypotheses were either not supported or were counter-intuitive to our propositions. With an interesting mix of results, our study highlights the complexity of the trust construct. Furthermore, in the clarification of social exchange–interpersonal trust–citizenship relationships, our study highlights the importance of individualism/collectivism as an important boundary condition.
Keywords: Affective trust; Cognitive trust; Social exchange theory; Organizational citizenship behaviors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425314000167
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:intman:v:20:y:2014:i:3:p:312-326
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 601266/bibliographic
DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2014.02.001
Access Statistics for this article
Journal of International Management is currently edited by M. Kotabe
More articles in Journal of International Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).