Institutional Trust As A Multilevel Construct

This thesis assesses individual perceptions of factors at three organizational levels of analysis (individual, interpersonal, and collective) in terms of their effects on institutional trust among organizational members (i.e. the degree to which organizational members perceive that the organization is predictable and benevolent). Past research is drawn upon to develop testable hypotheses concerning several organizational factors which are likely to be predictors of institutional trust in organizations. These include personal proclivity to trust and organizational identification at the individual level, perceptions of appropriate supervisory role enactment and perceptions of interference with performance or rewards at the interpersonal level, and perceptions of procedural and interactional justice as well as organizational legitimacy at the collective level. Faculty members and graduate students at a large university were studied using a survey methodology in order to test the hypotheses. Ultimately, organizational identification, perceptions of procedural justice and perceptions of organizational legitimacy were found to be significant predictors or institutional trust among faculty members, while only perceived organizational legitimacy is significant as a predictor among students. Implications for practitioners as well as for future research are discussed.