The relationship between trust in manager and the attitude towards change in the context of an international merger
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v7i1.388Keywords:
mergers and acquisitions, trust in management, attitudes towards acqusition, turnover intentionAbstract
The research literature suggests that organizational change can have both: positive and negative consequences on the members of an organization, but the first to be experienced are always the negative ones. As a result, reactions like resistance to change, negative attitudes towards organizational change and turnover are frequently noted in the change literature. The study at hand examines the employees' reactions in the context of the acquisition of a company by a foreign investor, considering the role of trust in management. Additionaly, we intend to analize the predictive power of each of the three attributes of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence and integrity, according to Mayer et al., 1995) for the attitudes regarding the organization's acquisition and the turnover intention. The results suggest a direct effect of trust in management on attitudes and turnover intention. When the three trustworthiness attributes were simultaneously introduced in a regression analysis, the results proved that ability and integrity were significant predictors of change attitudes, while benevolence showed no predictive power. As it regards the turnover intention, only management's perceived integrity was supported as a significant predictor.
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References
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Beer, T.A. & Nohria, N. (2000). Cracking the code of change. Harvard Business Review, 78, 2, 133-141.
Begley, T., & Yount, B. (1994). Enlisting personnel of the target to combat resentment. Mergers & Acquisitions, September/October, 27-32.
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Bruckman, J.C. & Peters, S.C. (1987). Mergers and acquisitions: The human equation. Employment Relations Today, 14, 55-63.
Buono, A.F. & Bowditch, J.L. (2003). The human side of mergers and acquisitions. Managing collisions between people, cultures and organizations. Ediția a 2-a, Washington, DC: Beard Books.
Cartwright, S. (2005). Mergers and acquisitions: An update and appraisal. ÃŽn Hodgkinson, G.P. & Ford, J.K. (Eds.). International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., pp. 1-38.
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Davis, J.H., Schoorman, F.D., Mayer, R.C. & Tan, H.H. (2000). The trusted general manager and business unit performance: Empirical evidence of a competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 21, 563-576.
Deloitte & Touche (1996). Executive survey of manufacturers. Accesibil la www.dtcg.co/research
Deluga, R.J. (1995). The relation between trust in the supervisor and subordinate organizational citizenship behavior. Military Psychology, 7, 1-16.
Dirks, K.T. & Ferrin, D.L. (2001). The role of trust inorganizational settings. Organization Science, 12, 450-467.
Dirks, K.T. & Ferrin, D.L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 4, 611-628.
Eby, L.T., Adams, D.M., Russell, J.E.A. & Gaby, S.H. (2000). Perceptions of organizational readiness for change: Factors related to employees' reactions to the implementation of team-based selling. Human Relations, 53, 419-442.
Elizur, D. & Guttman, L. (1976). The structure of attitudes toward work and technological change within an organization. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1, 611-623.
Fiorelli, J.S. & Margolis, H. (1993). Managing and understanding large systems change: Guidlines for executives and change agents. Organizational Development Journal, 11, 3, 1-13.
Flaherty, K. & Pappas, J. (2000). The role of trust in salesperson-sales manager relationship. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 20, 271-278.
Fulk, J., Brief, A. & Barr, S. (1985). Trust in supervisor and perceived fairness and accuracy of performance evaluations. Journal of Business Resources, 13, 301-313.
George, J.M. & Jones, G.R. (2001). Towards a process model of individual change in organizations. Human Relations, 54, 419-444.
Hambrick, D.C. & Canella, A.A. (1993). Relative standing: A framework for understanding departures of acquired executives. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 733-762.
Hosmer, L.T. (1995). Trust: The connecting link between organizational theory and philosophical ethics. Academy of Management Review, 20, 379-403.
Iacovini, J. (1993). The human side of organizational change. Training and Development Journal, 47, 1, 65-68.
Kiefer, T. (2005). Feeling bad: Antecedents and consequences of negative emotions in ongoing change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 875-897.
Kim, C.W. & Mauborgne, R.A. (1983). Procedural justice, attitudes and subsidiary top management compliance with multinationals' corporate strategies. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 502-526.
Kramer, R. (1999). Trust and distrust in organizations: Emerging perspectives, enduring questions. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 569-598.
Kramer, R.M. (1996). Divergent realities, convergent disappointments in the hierarchic relation, trust and the intuitive auditor at work. in Kramer, R.M. & Tyler, T.R. (Eds.), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 216-245.
Krug, J.A. & Hegarty, W.H. (2001). Predicting who stays and who leaves after an acquisition: A study of top managers in multi national firms. Strategic Management Journal, 22, 185-196.
Lewicki, R.J. & Bunker, B.B. (1996). Develping ad maintaining trust in work relationships.
Kramer, R.M. & Tyler, T.R. (Eds.), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 114-139.
Lind, E.A., Tyler, T.R. & Hue, Y. (1997). Procedural context and culture: Variation in the antecedents of procedural justice judgements. Journal of Personality Social Psychology, 73, 767-780.
Marks, M.L. & Mirvis, P.H. (2001). Making mergers and acquisitions work: strategic and psychological preparation. Academy of Management Executive, 15, 2, 80-92.
Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H. & Schoorman, F.D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. The Academy of Management Review, 20, 709-734.
Mossholder, K.W., Settoon, R.P., Armenakis, A.A. & Harris, S.G. (2000). Emotion during organizational transformations: An interactive model of survivor reactions. Group & Organization Management, 25, 220-243.
Napier, N.K. (1989). Mergers and acquisitions, human resource issues and outcomes: A review and suggested typology. Journal of Management Studies, 26, 3, 271-289.
O'Neill, H.M. & Lenn, D.J. (1995). Voices of survivors: Words that downsizing CEOs should hear. Academy of Management Executive, 9, 4, 23-33.
Oldham, G. (1975). The impact of supervisory characteristics on goal acceptance. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 461-475.
Piderit, S.K. (2000). Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence. A multidimensional view of attitudes towards organizational change. Academy of Management Review, 25, 783-794.
Rafferty, A.E. & Griffin, M.A. (2008). Organizational Change. in J. Barling & C.L. Cooper (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Organizational Behavior. Vol. 1: Micro Approaches. London: Sage Publications.pp. 603-620.
Roberts, K. & O'Reilly, C. (1974). Failures in upward communication in organizations. Three possible culprits. Academy of Management Journal, 17, 205-215.
Robinson, S. (1996). Trust and the breach of psychological contract. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 574-599.
Rousseau, D.M., Sirkin, S.B., Burt, R.S. & Camerer, C. (1998). Not so different after all: A crossdiscipline view of trust. Academy of Management Review, 23, 393-404.
Rousseau, D., & Tijoriwala, S. (1999). What's a good reason to change? Motivated reasoningand social accounts in promoting organizational change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 514-528.
Saunders, M.N.K. & Thornhill, A. (2003). Organizational justice, trust and the management of change. An exploration. Personnel Review, 32, 3, 360-375.
Schweiger, D.L. & DeNisi, AS (1991). Communication with employees following a merger: a longitudinal field experiment. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 110-135.
Schweiger, D.M. & Ivancevich, J.M. (1985). Human resources: the forgotten factor in mergers and acquisitions. Personnel Administrator, November, 44.
Searle, R.H. & Ball, K.S. (2004). The development of trust and distrust in a merger. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19,7, 708-721.
Stahl, G.K. & Sitkin, S.B. (2005). Trust in Mergers and Acquisitions. in G.K. Sthal & M.E. Mendenhall (2005). Mergers and acquisitions. Managing culture and Human Resources. Standford, CA: Standford Business Books.
Tyler, T. & Degoey, P. (1996). Trust in organizational authorities: The influence of motive attributions and willingness to accept decisions. in R.M. Kramer & T.R. Tyler (Eds.) Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Vakola, M. & Nikolau, I. (2005). Attitudes towards organizational change: What is the role of employees' stress and commitment? Employee Relations, 27, 2, 160-174.
Vandenberg, R.J. & Nelson, J.B. (1999). Disaggregating the motives underlying turnover intentions: when do intentions predict turnover behavior? Human Relations, 52, 10, 1313-1316.
Zand, D. (1972). Trust and managerial problem solving. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 229-239.
Armenakis, A.A., Harris, S.G. & Field, H.S. (1999). Making change permanent: A model for institutionalizing change interventions. Research in Organizational Change and Development, 12, 97-128.
Armenakis, A.A., Harris, S.G. & Mossholder, K.W. (1993). Creating readiness for organizational change. Human Relations, 46, 6, 681-702.
Ashford, S.J., Lee, C. & Bobko, P. (1989). Content, causes and consequences of job insecurity. A theory-based measure and substantive test. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 803-829.
Bartunek, J.M., Rousseau, D.M., Rudolph, J.M. & DePalma, J.A. (2006). On the receiving end: Sensemaking, emotion and assessment of an organizational change initiated by others. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 42, 182-206.
Beer, T.A. & Nohria, N. (2000). Cracking the code of change. Harvard Business Review, 78, 2, 133-141.
Begley, T., & Yount, B. (1994). Enlisting personnel of the target to combat resentment. Mergers & Acquisitions, September/October, 27-32.
Bigley, G. & Pearce, J. (1998). Straining for shared meaningin organization science: Problems of trust and distrust. Academy of Management Review, 23, 405-421.
Bruckman, J.C. & Peters, S.C. (1987). Mergers and acquisitions: The human equation. Employment Relations Today, 14, 55-63.
Buono, A.F. & Bowditch, J.L. (2003). The human side of mergers and acquisitions. Managing collisions between people, cultures and organizations. Ediția a 2-a, Washington, DC: Beard Books.
Cartwright, S. (2005). Mergers and acquisitions: An update and appraisal. ÃŽn Hodgkinson, G.P. & Ford, J.K. (Eds.). International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., pp. 1-38.
Cartwright, S. & Cooper, C.L. (1997). Managing mergers acquisitions & strategic alliances. Integrating people and cultures. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinmann.
Cartwright, S. (2008). Mergers and acquisitions: Why 2+2 does not always make 5. in J. Barling & C.L. Cooper (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Organizational Behavior. Vol. 1: Micro Approaches. London: Sage Publications. pp.583-601.
Davis, J.H., Schoorman, F.D., Mayer, R.C. & Tan, H.H. (2000). The trusted general manager and business unit performance: Empirical evidence of a competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 21, 563-576.
Deloitte & Touche (1996). Executive survey of manufacturers. Accesibil la www.dtcg.co/research
Deluga, R.J. (1995). The relation between trust in the supervisor and subordinate organizational citizenship behavior. Military Psychology, 7, 1-16.
Dirks, K.T. & Ferrin, D.L. (2001). The role of trust inorganizational settings. Organization Science, 12, 450-467.
Dirks, K.T. & Ferrin, D.L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 4, 611-628.
Eby, L.T., Adams, D.M., Russell, J.E.A. & Gaby, S.H. (2000). Perceptions of organizational readiness for change: Factors related to employees' reactions to the implementation of team-based selling. Human Relations, 53, 419-442.
Elizur, D. & Guttman, L. (1976). The structure of attitudes toward work and technological change within an organization. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1, 611-623.
Fiorelli, J.S. & Margolis, H. (1993). Managing and understanding large systems change: Guidlines for executives and change agents. Organizational Development Journal, 11, 3, 1-13.
Flaherty, K. & Pappas, J. (2000). The role of trust in salesperson-sales manager relationship. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 20, 271-278.
Fulk, J., Brief, A. & Barr, S. (1985). Trust in supervisor and perceived fairness and accuracy of performance evaluations. Journal of Business Resources, 13, 301-313.
George, J.M. & Jones, G.R. (2001). Towards a process model of individual change in organizations. Human Relations, 54, 419-444.
Hambrick, D.C. & Canella, A.A. (1993). Relative standing: A framework for understanding departures of acquired executives. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 733-762.
Hosmer, L.T. (1995). Trust: The connecting link between organizational theory and philosophical ethics. Academy of Management Review, 20, 379-403.
Iacovini, J. (1993). The human side of organizational change. Training and Development Journal, 47, 1, 65-68.
Kiefer, T. (2005). Feeling bad: Antecedents and consequences of negative emotions in ongoing change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 875-897.
Kim, C.W. & Mauborgne, R.A. (1983). Procedural justice, attitudes and subsidiary top management compliance with multinationals' corporate strategies. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 502-526.
Kramer, R. (1999). Trust and distrust in organizations: Emerging perspectives, enduring questions. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 569-598.
Kramer, R.M. (1996). Divergent realities, convergent disappointments in the hierarchic relation, trust and the intuitive auditor at work. in Kramer, R.M. & Tyler, T.R. (Eds.), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 216-245.
Krug, J.A. & Hegarty, W.H. (2001). Predicting who stays and who leaves after an acquisition: A study of top managers in multi national firms. Strategic Management Journal, 22, 185-196.
Lewicki, R.J. & Bunker, B.B. (1996). Develping ad maintaining trust in work relationships.
Kramer, R.M. & Tyler, T.R. (Eds.), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 114-139.
Lind, E.A., Tyler, T.R. & Hue, Y. (1997). Procedural context and culture: Variation in the antecedents of procedural justice judgements. Journal of Personality Social Psychology, 73, 767-780.
Marks, M.L. & Mirvis, P.H. (2001). Making mergers and acquisitions work: strategic and psychological preparation. Academy of Management Executive, 15, 2, 80-92.
Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H. & Schoorman, F.D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. The Academy of Management Review, 20, 709-734.
Mossholder, K.W., Settoon, R.P., Armenakis, A.A. & Harris, S.G. (2000). Emotion during organizational transformations: An interactive model of survivor reactions. Group & Organization Management, 25, 220-243.
Napier, N.K. (1989). Mergers and acquisitions, human resource issues and outcomes: A review and suggested typology. Journal of Management Studies, 26, 3, 271-289.
O'Neill, H.M. & Lenn, D.J. (1995). Voices of survivors: Words that downsizing CEOs should hear. Academy of Management Executive, 9, 4, 23-33.
Oldham, G. (1975). The impact of supervisory characteristics on goal acceptance. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 461-475.
Piderit, S.K. (2000). Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence. A multidimensional view of attitudes towards organizational change. Academy of Management Review, 25, 783-794.
Rafferty, A.E. & Griffin, M.A. (2008). Organizational Change. in J. Barling & C.L. Cooper (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Organizational Behavior. Vol. 1: Micro Approaches. London: Sage Publications.pp. 603-620.
Roberts, K. & O'Reilly, C. (1974). Failures in upward communication in organizations. Three possible culprits. Academy of Management Journal, 17, 205-215.
Robinson, S. (1996). Trust and the breach of psychological contract. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 574-599.
Rousseau, D.M., Sirkin, S.B., Burt, R.S. & Camerer, C. (1998). Not so different after all: A crossdiscipline view of trust. Academy of Management Review, 23, 393-404.
Rousseau, D., & Tijoriwala, S. (1999). What's a good reason to change? Motivated reasoningand social accounts in promoting organizational change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 514-528.
Saunders, M.N.K. & Thornhill, A. (2003). Organizational justice, trust and the management of change. An exploration. Personnel Review, 32, 3, 360-375.
Schweiger, D.L. & DeNisi, AS (1991). Communication with employees following a merger: a longitudinal field experiment. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 110-135.
Schweiger, D.M. & Ivancevich, J.M. (1985). Human resources: the forgotten factor in mergers and acquisitions. Personnel Administrator, November, 44.
Searle, R.H. & Ball, K.S. (2004). The development of trust and distrust in a merger. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19,7, 708-721.
Stahl, G.K. & Sitkin, S.B. (2005). Trust in Mergers and Acquisitions. in G.K. Sthal & M.E. Mendenhall (2005). Mergers and acquisitions. Managing culture and Human Resources. Standford, CA: Standford Business Books.
Tyler, T. & Degoey, P. (1996). Trust in organizational authorities: The influence of motive attributions and willingness to accept decisions. in R.M. Kramer & T.R. Tyler (Eds.) Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Vakola, M. & Nikolau, I. (2005). Attitudes towards organizational change: What is the role of employees' stress and commitment? Employee Relations, 27, 2, 160-174.
Vandenberg, R.J. & Nelson, J.B. (1999). Disaggregating the motives underlying turnover intentions: when do intentions predict turnover behavior? Human Relations, 52, 10, 1313-1316.
Zand, D. (1972). Trust and managerial problem solving. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 229-239.
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Published
2020-01-24
How to Cite
Budean, A., & Pitariu, H. (2020). The relationship between trust in manager and the attitude towards change in the context of an international merger. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 7(1), 29–42. https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v7i1.388
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