Trust and perceptions of compliance, fairness and good faith in primary labour relationships

Abstract

Background: Primary labour relationships (PLRs) occur within supervisory relationships. Previous studies confirmed that compliance, fairness, good faith and trust were interrelated facilitators of positive perceptions of primary labour relationship quality. Many researchers regard trust as a primary requirement for effective implementation of formal and psychological employment contracts.Aim: This study investigated the nature and direction of relationships between subordinate employee perceptions of the levels of compliance, fairness and good faith in PLRs and levels of trust in PLRs.Setting: Two interviewers adopted snowball sampling approaches to conduct structured interviews with 68 subordinate employees residing in Gauteng, South Africa.Methods: The researcher adopted a mixed-method research methodology that included a thorough literature review, development of a structured interview, interviewing 68 voluntary participants and statistical analysis of data.Results: Confident conclusions were drawn and discussed, and related limitations were explained. Specific recommendations for further research into the relationships and dynamics of trust-related phenomena in PLRs were made.Conclusion: It was confidently concluded that literature and empirical findings, jointly and separately, provided ample evidence of positive relationships between subordinate employee perceptions of the levels of trust and their perceptions of the levels of compliance, fairness and good faith in PLRs. Accordingly, it can be confidently expected that lower levels of trust will be related to lower levels of perceived compliance, fairness and good faith in PLRs, and higher levels of trust will be related to higher levels of perceived compliance, fairness and good faith in PLRs. Causality was not investigated in this study.

Is benevolence the pinnacle of an employment relations trust hierarchy?

“…Numerous studies concluded that organisational, supervisory relationship as well as ERT levels are positively related to a wide variety of desirable organisational and employment relations outcomes (Robbins & Judge, 2017;Searle & Skinner, 2011). Employment relations trust levels were also found to be positively related to positive perceptions of compliance, fairness and good faith in supervisory relationships, as well as positive perceptions of employment relations satisfaction and employment relations quality (Ehlers, 2020;Krot & Lewicka, 2012).…”

“…Subordinate expectations, experiences and outcomes of previous trust exchanges will usually result in revised positive or negative perceptions of supervisor trustworthiness in future exchanges (Robbins, Judge, & Campbell, 2017;Starnes et al, 2016). Low trust levels or distrust often result in job dissatisfaction, stress, complaints, formal grievances and other forms of employment relations conflict (Ehlers, 2020).…”

“…The levels of trust, compliance, fairness and good faith in an employment relationship have been objectively estimated by recording the number of times that a characteristic of the condition manifests in an employment relationship. For example, a very low level of fairness can be assumed if at least one of five basic criteria for fairness is demonstrated in an employment relationship, and a very high level of fairness can be assumed if all five of the basic criteria for fairness are demonstrated in employment relationships (Ehlers, 2020).…”

“…Savolainen and Ikonen (2016) identified initiation, opening and progress as the three stages through which trust develops in teams. Ehlers (2020) suggested that ERT can be expected to develop through at least three stages, namely compliance, fairness and good faith. There is thus ample evidence to assume that trust develops through a few stages.…”

“…to be more prevalent in mature employment relationship that evolved through certain trust developing stages. The views of numerous authors suggested that employment relations trust (ERT) may develop in a sequential hierarchal order, along the same lines as Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Covey, 2006;Ehlers, 2020;Maslow, 1943;Savolainen & Ikonen, 2016;Schilke & Cook, 2013).…”