Building trust and commitment through transparency and HR competence: A signaling perspective

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore factors that help to determine employee trust in and affective commitment toward the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for this study were collected using surveys administered to employees of a company located in the southeastern United States. The final sample included 391 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads.

Findings

We found organizational signals of trustworthiness led to affective commitment through increased levels of employee trust. Employees and supervisors who perceived HR professionals to be competent, who felt organizational information distributions were of high quality and who felt the organization disclosed relevant information exhibited higher levels of trust in the organization. Employees showed higher affective commitment when they trusted the organization. We found that supervisor trust directly impacted subordinate affective commitment as well.

Originality/value

These findings help extend signaling theory from the attraction of employees to their retention and help researchers and practitioners alike to understand the organizational trust- and commitment-building process.

Citation

Klimchak, M., Ward Bartlett, A.K. and MacKenzie, W. (2020), "Building trust and commitment through transparency and HR competence: A signaling perspective", Personnel Review, Vol. 49 No. 9, pp. 1897-1917. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-03-2019-0096