Development and validation of a propensity to trust scale

Though trust researchers recognise the importance of a dispositional component to forming trusting relationships in the workplace, there has been comparatively little research on propensity to trust in the literature. We review the literature, discuss prior measures of propensity to trust, and integrate them to develop a propensity to trust scale. Results of four validation studies suggest that this propensity to trust scale demonstrates strong psychometric properties and is empirically related to other constructs within a theoretically derived nomological network of trust. The consequence is a concise, rigorously developed, and consistently reliable scale of propensity to trust. Scholarly and practical implications are discussed along with several avenues for future research.

[1]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Is Anybody Out There? Antecedents of Trust in Global Virtual Teams , 1998, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[2]  Matthew K. O. Lee,et al.  A Trust Model for Consumer Internet Shopping , 2001, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[3]  N. L. Chervany,et al.  Initial Trust Formation in New Organizational Relationships , 1998 .

[4]  Charles J. Kacmar,et al.  Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology , 2002, Inf. Syst. Res..

[5]  J. Rotter.  A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust. , 1967, Journal of personality.

[6]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust: Past, Present, and Future , 2007 .

[7]  Chester A. Schriesheim,et al.  Controlling Acquiescence Response Bias by Item Reversals: The Effect on Questionnaire Validity , 1981 .

[8]  Eric M. Uslaner,et al.  Democracy and Trust: Democracy and social capital , 1999 .

[9]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Trust and distrust in organizations: emerging perspectives, enduring questions. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[10]  S. Gosling,et al.  A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains , 2003 .

[11]  M. A. Campion,et al.  APPLICANT REACTIONS TO SELECTION: DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELECTION PROCEDURAL JUSTICE SCALE (SPJS) , 2001 .

[12]  Brent A. Scott,et al.  PROCEDURAL JUSTICE, INTERACTIONAL JUSTICE, AND TASK PERFORMANCE: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION , 2009 .

[13]  Edward G. Carmines,et al.  Reliability and Validity Assessment , 1979 .

[14]  L. Wrightsman.  CHAPTER 8 – Interpersonal Trust and Attitudes toward Human Nature , 1991 .

[15]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust , 1995 .

[16]  Bradley J. Alge,et al.  REMOTE CONTROL: PREDICTORS OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING INTENSITY AND SECRECY , 2004 .

[17]  Lane Kelley,et al.  Special Issue: Trust in an Organizational Context: Levels of Organizational Trust in Individualist Versus Collectivist Societies: A Seven-Nation Study , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[18]  R. Reilly,et al.  Why do we trust? Moving beyond individual to dyadic perceptions. , 2010, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  D. Ferrin,et al.  Trust in leadership: meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[20]  Paul D. Johnson,et al.  Organizational Justice, Trustworthiness, and Trust: A Multifoci Examination , 2010 .

[21]  J. Rotter.  Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness, and gullibility. , 1980 .

[22]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Lisrel 8: User's Reference Guide , 1997 .

[23]  Timothy R. Hinkin,et al.  A Brief Tutorial on the Development of Measures for Use in Survey Questionnaires , 1998 .

[24]  M. J. Rosenberg.  Cognitive structure and attitudinal affect. , 1956, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[25]  Anthony T. Cobb,et al.  Understanding the connections between relationship conflict and performance: The intervening roles of trust and exchange , 2010 .

[26]  Zinta S. Byrne,et al.  Workplace justice and the dilemma of organizational citizenship. , 2000 .

[27]  Trudy Govier,et al.  Is It a Jungle Out There? Trust, Distrust and the Construction of Social Reality , 1994, Dialogue.

[28]  Paul E. Levy,et al.  The Development and Validation of a New Machiavellianism Scale , 2009 .

[29]  D. Betsy McCoach,et al.  The Performance of RMSEA in Models With Small Degrees of Freedom , 2015 .

[30]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[31]  L. Wrightsman.  Assumptions about Human Nature: Implications for Researchers and Practitioners , 1991 .

[32]  Michael W. Bridges,et al.  Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): a reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  Christine L. Porath,et al.  Thriving at work: Toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement , 2012 .

[34]  J. H. Davis,et al.  The effect of the performance appraisal system on trust for management: A field quasi-experiment. , 1999 .

[35]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[36]  Robert F. DeVellis,et al.  Scale Development: Theory and Applications. , 1992 .

[37]  Brent A. Scott,et al.  Trust, trustworthiness, and trust propensity: a meta-analytic test of their unique relationships with risk taking and job performance. , 2007, The Journal of applied psychology.

[38]  K. Jones.  Trust as an Affective Attitude , 1996, Ethics.

[39]  R. Tedeschi,et al.  Factor anlaysis of the Interpersonal Trust Scale. , 1975 .

[40]  Tapabrata Maiti,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling (2nd ed.) , 2006 .

[41]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Measures of social psychological attitudes , 1976 .

[42]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Measures Of Personality And Social Psychological Attitudes , 1991 .

[43]  Eyal Yaniv,et al.  Construct Clarity in Theories of Management and Organization , 2011 .

[44]  Bill McEvily,et al.  Measuring trust in organisational research: Review and recommendations , 2011 .

[45]  Larry Dossey,et al.  Optimism , 1908, Explore.

[46]  A. Zaheer,et al.  Bridging ties: a source of firm heterogeneity in competitive capabilities , 1999 .

[47]  H. W. Kee,et al.  Conceptual and methodological considerations in the study of trust and suspicion , 1970 .

[48]  Jennifer L. Glanville,et al.  How do We Learn to Trust? A Confirmatory Tetrad Analysis of the Sources of Generalized Trust , 2007 .

[49]  Jeremy B. Bernerth,et al.  Propensity to Trust and the Impact on Social Exchange , 2009 .

[50]  T. Judge,et al.  THE CORE SELF‐EVALUATIONS SCALE: DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE , 2003 .

[51]  John A. Johnson,et al.  The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures ☆ , 2006 .

[52]  Kathleen Boies,et al.  Antecedents Of Trust: Establishing A Boundary Condition For The Relation Between Propensity To Trust And Intention To Trust , 2005 .

[53]  M. Korsgaard,et al.  Trust in the face of conflict: the role of managerial trustworthy behavior and organizational context. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[54]  Hwee Hoon Tan,et al.  Trust in Coworkers and Trust in Organizations , 2009, The Journal of psychology.

[55]  R. Mayer,et al.  IN MANAGEMENT , 2006 .

[56]  Alfred A. Marcus,et al.  EMBEDDED TIES AND THE ACQUISITION OF COMPETITIVE CAPABILITIES , 2005 .

[57]  Michael R. Frone,et al.  Relationship between Job and Family Satisfaction: Causal or Noncausal Covariation? , 1994 .

[58]  Kimberly A. Eddleston,et al.  Moderators of the Relationship Between Work-Family Conflict and Career Satisfaction , 2002 .

[59]  J. Dawes.  Do Data Characteristics Change According to the Number of Scale Points Used? An Experiment Using 5-Point, 7-Point and 10-Point Scales , 2008 .

[60]  Adam M. Grant,et al.  Good soldiers and good actors: prosocial and impression management motives as interactive predictors of affiliative citizenship behaviors. , 2009, The Journal of applied psychology.

[61]  Paul D. Johnson,et al.  An examination of the factorial, construct, and predictive validity and utility of the Regulatory Focus at Work Scale. , 2009 .

[62]  Achilles A. Armenakis,et al.  Leader–member social exchange (LMSX): development and validation of a scale , 2007 .

[63]  J. Diefendorff,et al.  Emotional display rules and emotional labor: the moderating role of commitment. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[64]  Jason W. Osborne,et al.  Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. , 2005 .

[65]  B. Tepper,et al.  Upward Maintenance Tactics in Supervisory Mentoring and Nonmentoring Relationships , 1995 .

[66]  J. Rotter.  Generalized expectancies for interpersonal trust. , 1971 .