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This paper gives an overview of major issues in trust research, identifying common foundations and multiple constellations of organizational trust. In doing so, the paper also addresses important implications of theory development and empirical research. First, it provides a historical sketch of different approaches to understanding the phenomenon of trust, drawing upon various social science disciplines. Second, it discusses different levels of analysing trust in organizational settings. Third, it deals with important issues of operationalisation and measurement of organizational trust. Finally, it briefly summarises the contents of the five papers that follow this introductory paper in the special issue of JMP on “The micro‐foundations of organizational trust”.

Research into interpersonal trust within organisational contexts tends to concentrate on managers as a referent, largely ignoring the potential social benefits of trust amongst co‐workers. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of co‐worker trust on selected organisational perceptions and attitudes. Results provided empirical support for the fundamental role of co‐worker trust. Co‐worker trust was found to be a significant predictor of perceived organisational support, lowered turnover intention, and greater affective commitment. In view of these results, it is suggested that there may be opportunities for organisations to improve individual and organisational effectiveness by engendering trust throughout peer levels.

The recent growth in the trust literature indicates that both researchers and practitioners are continuing to recognise its importance as a factor for determining organisational success and the well‐being of employees. Trust is, however, a complex, multidimensional construct that has generated much debate concerning how trusting relationships might be created. The aim of this paper is to add to current debates by reporting on a study concerning trust within manager‐subordinate relationships within a large Australian organisation. The annual staff survey for this organisation indicated that levels of trust in managers were very low, leading the authors to investigate the predictors and outcomes of this situation. Focus group and survey questionnaire results led to the finding that perceived organisational support, procedural justice and transformational leadership were significant predictors of trust in managers and that turnover intent and commitment were significant outcomes. The implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Introduces six empirical studies on trust within organisations which were originally presented at a workshop on “Trust within and between organisations”, organised by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management at the Free University Amsterdam, in November 2001. Areas covered include: the legitimacy of the field of study; common understandings and disagreements in theoretical ideas; and directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify predictors of charlatan behaviour and investigate relationships among the construct and other variables like: trust in management, organisational commitment, turnover intention, supervisory support, job performance and some job characteristics in Botswana and Swaziland.

Data were collected using self‐administered questionnaires in this survey. Usable questionnaires were received from a total of 484 respondents. Respondents were from public and private sector. Five hypotheses were tested.

Result shows a strong and significant inverse relationship between charlatan behaviour and trust on the one hand and a direct significant relationship with continuance commitment on the other. Supervisory support, employee participation and goal clarity were also significantly albeit inversely correlated with charlatan behaviour but not so with all other study variables. The significant predictors of charlatan behaviour were trust in management and continuance commitment.

The predictor variables for charlatan behaviour in this study were few and the sample is heavily skewed towards the public sector. Future studies would benefit from looking at how co‐worker trust and ethical behaviour scales would relate to charlatan behaviour, as well as cross‐cultural and multi‐cultural comparison.

Deliberate management policies that build trust, identify and tackle charlatan behaviour during selection and performance evaluation while sustaining employee commitment is vital. So is dealing with the potential problems posed by charlatans especially the possibility of upsetting and demotivating other sincere and committed employees.

The paper re‐awakens a new task for HR practitioners and researchers: that of identifying organisational charlatans. Also striving to create sustained commitment while building trust and segregating (or incorporating where possible) charlatans.