Recipients of governance: Trust and the employee perspective

Abstract

Purpose - to introduce trust as related to organizational design and management within the broader domain of governance and report on case study research on trust carried out in a large Australian organization. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is in three parts. The first part reviews a selection of ideas and recent writers on trust; the second part describes the methodology of the case study research which focused on relationship management where trust emerged as an important element of relationships. This is followed by examples from the findings. The third part addresses insights and future research. Originality/value - The study of trust has become an important topic for management and corporate governance during recent years. After discussing scholarly interpretations of trust, empirical research findings are used to provide insight into how employees actually understand and interpret trust.