Honesty and Trust: Integrating the Values of Individuals, Organizations, and the Society

Abstract

Purpose — The purpose of this chapter is to assess empirically the levels of trust across the world and to explore possible differences in the levels of trust among different groups of respondents.Design/methodology/approach — We analyze the individual-level data from 81 countries around the world using latest available European Values Study (EVS) and World Values Survey (WVS) datasets (most data refer to the year 2008). Methodologically, we compose three trust indicators using confirmatory factor analysis and then compare the level of trust in different groups. After that we calculate country-level means of trust indicators and use these as inputs in cluster analysis.Findings — The results of our empirical analysis show that the level of trust among supervisors do not differ significantly from the overall level of trust in a society, supporting the hypothesis that honesty and trust tend to be contagious. Still, there are statistically significant differences in trust levels between almost all explored population groups which were composed on the basis of previous theoretical and empirical literature.Limitations — Our analysis covered only selected socio-economic determinants of trust. It would be reasonable to add some contextual or systemic factors at the level of nation (like GDP per capita, quality of formal institutions, society’s polarization, or others) into further analysis.Originality/value — Our analysis distinguishes between three different types of trust which are studied both at individual and national level. Also, differences between age groups and educational groups, men and women, religious and non-religious persons are examined. Finally, we compare the levels of trust of those supervising someone with the average trust levels in the society as a whole.

Citation

Kaasa, A. and Parts, E. (2013), "Honesty and Trust: Integrating the Values of Individuals, Organizations, and the Society", Vissak, T. and Vadi, M. (Ed.) (Dis)Honesty in Management (Advanced Series in Management, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1877-6361(2013)0000010007