ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organisational trust and employees’ job satisfaction. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The survey research design was adopted while 300 employees from Ecobank Nigeria Limited comprised the samples used for the study. The questionnaire was used as method of data collection. The questionnaire was validated by the research supervisor and experts in the field of statistics. A Cronbach Alpha Reliability Coefficient was used to ensure internal consistency of the instrument, which yielded a high reliability coefficient. The data collected was analysed used mean and standard deviation as well as Pearson Product moment correlation Coefficient. The result obtained revealed that there is a significant relationship between organisational trust and job satisfaction. The result also revealed that there is a significant relationship between organisational trust and organisational commitment and that there is a significant relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Based on the result, it was recommended that there should be an improvement on the levels of trust given to employees within the levels of management and that responsibility should be given to them with less supervision.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the Study
The concept of trust has been discussed for years, especially since 1980s, it begins to receive consideration in the field of management and organizational behaviour (Lewicki et al., 1998). In recent years, researchers emphasize the role of trust in organizational life (Tan and Tan, 2000). Organizations experience crisis which are attributed to economic, social or political reasons, but mostly there are serious problems of trust behind these crisis (Erdem, 2003). Although there is a consensus between researchers that trust is an important element of management, they define trust distinctly (Hosmer, 1995). Robinson (1996), defines trust as believing that the other party will not work against him or her and will not stand in the way of his or her interests. Fukuyama (2000), defines trust as expectations that arise in societies where the members share common norms, behave honestly and cooperate with each other. On the other hand, Yılmaz and Kabaday (2000), describes trust as the beliefs about the unselfishness of the other party, readiness to risk-taking and dependency at a certain level. Studies reveal that the most important discrimination about organizational trust is the distinction between setting one’s trust in an individual and in the organization (Blomqvist et al., 2003). “Trusting somebody” and “trusting an organization‟ are different concepts (Doney and Cannon, 1997). An employee working in an organization can trust the organization and the other people in organization at different levels (Nyhan and Marlowe, 1997).
It has been argued that trust is a key stone of social relations between individuals and organizations, player can benefit mutually from the trust (Costa, 2003). Researchers argue that only when an employee feels safe about himself/herself then he or she can perform higher and gets higher satisfaction. Phuong (2006) identified trust as a critical ingredient to enhance organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage in the competition for human talents, job satisfaction, and the long-term stability and wellbeing of organizational members. Trust has been connected with perceptions of equality and precision in performance evaluations, as well as playing an important role in empowerment both of which contribute to lower levels of disagreement and augmented worker performance (Ristig, 2009, 660). Organizational efficiency is up to level of trust. Trust was related with useful decision making as a result of sharing ideas, information, and feelings, organizational consistency, and increased productivity (Laschinger, 2002, 64).
The literature suggests that one antecedent to trust is employee perception whether management is competent and credible. This character based perception of trust suggests that employees make inferences about their leader’s character, such as integrity or dependability, which in turn affects their level of trust (Reychav, Sharkie, 2010, 231). The literature suggests that communicating and modelling important values and encouraging staff to adopt them and pursue a shared purpose, were practices that were likely to be antecedents to the building of trust, because management’s moral values are likely to be reflected in their company’s human resource policies and practices. Developing a moral and value driven collective vision aligns leader and employee actions and focuses them on the achievement of shared goals. Under this influence, employees may view leaders in an idealized way, causing them to identify with the leader, trust the leader and be inspired by the vision of what can be achieved through extra-personaleffort. These authors argument is that employees are motivated to perform beyond expectations through employee trust and respect in their leader (Reychav, Sharkie, 2010, 231). Trust is a major component in an individual’s decision to share knowledge and in trustfully environments, individuals and groups may be inclined to share knowledge and act cooperatively. High trust situations also allow individuals to share their ideas without the disadvantage risk of having these ideas subjected to derision (Reychav, Sharkie, 2010, 232).
In addition to trust, organisations should be concerned about job satisfaction, which Rowden (2002) considered an indicator of organizational members’ emotional well-being and psychological health. Research has shown that job satisfaction is influenced by the level of pay and performance, employee benefits, training, recruiting, learning curve inefficiencies, reduction in the client base, job design, life satisfaction, autonomy, growth satisfaction, satisfaction with co-workers, satisfaction with supervisors, and customer satisfaction (Comm & Mathaisel, 2000).
Organizations that see the value of their employees create a culture of mutual trust among organisational members and between management and employees. These organisations are known as high performance organisations (Phillips, 1997). Trust inside organisations directly affects profits, innovation, and organizational effectiveness (Lynch, 2001); however, evidence seems to indicate that trust in both public and private organisations has been declining for several decades (Kramer, 1999). Trust is a foundation for social order within and beyond organisations, especially in an increasingly complex, global, fast-paced business environment (Thoms, Dose, & Scott, 2002) and has a number of important benefits for organisations and their members. For example, trust plays a paramount role in the creation and development of the psychological contract that binds an employee to the organization, and it can play a key role in explaining employee’s attitudes and behaviours at work (Robinson, 1996).
Trust is particularly important for organisations competing in the global marketplace in which there are uncertainty and risk because partners’ culture, values, and goals may be very different (Huff & Kelly, 2003). “High levels of organizational trust can critically reduce litigation charges and transaction costs; and high trust cultures minimize the potential for destructive and litigated conflict, unnecessary bureaucratic control and administrative expenditures, and expensive overhead” (Shockley-Zalabak, Ellis, & Winograd, 2000, p. 3).
Employees in organisations may be motivated to contribute their ideas and talents and may be quite satisfied with their jobs in an environment that fosters organizational trust and growth of employees and where their knowledge, skills and abilities are valued and fully utilized. According to Thoms et al. (2002) as cited by Phuong (2006), as the demand for skilled workers increases, creating a satisfied workforce has important implications for organizations. This is because, a dissatisfied employees will not only be a liability to him/herself, but will also be liability to his/her co-workers and by extension, the organization. High performance organisations are believed to trust their employees and provide their employees with proper empowerment to perform their duties. This empowerment requires management to entrust the work force with responsibility and authority. Without trust, people assume self-protective, defensive postures that inhibit learning (Costigan, Ilter, & Berman, 1998). An organizational climate of trust enables employees to submit their ideas and feelings, use each other as resources, and learn together. Without trust people have a tendency to keep to themselves, rather than share their thoughts, thereby, inhibiting creativity (Jordan, 1999).
High performance organisations can offer employees the opportunity to perform to their full capacity, share performance information, engage in the decision-making process, and encourage innovative and imaginative approach to achieve business results and organizational goals. This sharing of performance information may provide employees with the business knowledge they need to perform their jobs well, enjoy their duties, be satisfied with their jobs, and can provide good communication and customer services. Dalton (2000) reported that high performance organisations are designed to bring out the best in people and to create an exceptional capability to deliver high-end results.
Phuong (2006), quoting the U.S. Department of Labour’s Office of the American Workplace (1994) states that job satisfaction, employee commitment to high quality, and increased customer satisfaction would likely result when employees are allowed to make informed decisions and to involve in information sharing. Today’s organizations require structures that allow employees to act with initiative in order to take advantage of available opportunities (Simons, 1995). In today’s competitive environment, one of the foremost conditions required for organizations to be able to sustain their presence is their ability to provide an environment of trust that allows employees to actively participate in the decision making process (Wech, 2002). In his research, Zand (1972) has shown that in groups where the level of trust is high, individuals‟ skills for elucidating and clarifying objectives and problems were higher, and that they were able to generate distinctly higher number of alternatives compared to groups with low levels of trust. Suspicion dominates in an environment lacking trust, which in turn leads to individuals evading each other (Shaw, 1997). Those working in organizations with low levels of trust are subject to stress, and they feel the need to continuously look out for themselves and to justify the validity of the decisions they make (İslamoğlu et al., 2007). In this context, it is considered that in organizations with a low level of trust, it becomes difficult for employees to use initiative and to make effective decisions by evaluating alternatives in a sound fashion.
According to Usikalu, Ogunleye & Effiong (2015), organizational trust and Job satisfaction are some of the important factors that may influence employees’ job performance. Poor performing employees not only do not provide expected results, but their negative behaviour may distract others from doing their jobs and reduce other staff credibility (Banfield, Richmond & McCroskey, 2006).
Individuals want to work in an environment of trust and respect where they have the ability to make contributions to the organisational goals and objectives. They want to be able to have the opportunity to show management that they can accomplish a task with the creativity obtained from working in teams. High performance organisations offer individuals the opportunity to obtain the level of success they desire. According to the U.S. Department of Labour Office of the American Workplace (2004), workers gain the opportunity to make informed decisions that will affect the service or product they offer. When combined with information sharing, the result is greater job satisfaction and employee commitment to high quality and increased customers satisfaction. (p.2)
High performance organisation shares any information regarding the organisation with their workers. This sharing provides workers with the knowledge they need to perform their job effectively and also enjoy what they are doing. Business survival requires organisations to continue to learn and trust each other (Adams, 2005); however, employees in Nigerian banks rarely trust their organisations, this is because, their job is quite not secured. Trust particularly between labour and management, is considered important to organisational success and is an ingredient for competitive advantage (Rousseau, 1996). Trust is needed for employee empowerment to occur. Dew (as cited in Peter, Brynes, Choi, Fegan, & Miller, 2002) found that, empowering employees will result in greater job satisfaction. Empowerment in creates in employees a sense of ownership and a sense of being proud of their work and their organisation. In addition to trust, job satisfaction is viewed as an important organisational factor (Muchinsky, 1990), but according to Rowden (2015), “Job satisfaction is one of the most widely researched yet least understood phenomena in organisation today.
Herzberg’s theory proposes that managers need to focus on factors associated with the work itself or outcomes directly derived from it, such as promotional opportunities, opportunities for personal growth, recognition, responsibility, and achievement and proposes that employees are likely to dissatisfy with their jobs, concerning the quality of their supervision, pay, organisational policies, physical working conditions, relations with others, and job security (Robbins, 2003). Also, Argyris (1973) proposes that organisations should seek to increase openness, trust, risk-taking, and expression of feelings and should develop the belief that human growth is important, for when mistrust in organisations rises, learning will not occur.
Organisations that have the ability to develop mistrusting relationship will have a competitive advantage (Huff & Kelly, 2003). According to Shockley-Zalabak, Ellis, & Winograd (2000), increased job satisfaction, the ability to innovate, and the ability to identify with a successful organisation, all are related to perceptions of trust. They also emphasised that organisations need to monitor trust levels, especially during times of rapid change. According to Zauderer (2002), one of the highest accomplishments of an organisation is to build a workforce in which employees feel included and welcomed and work together with mutual respect in order to enhance individual and organisational productivity. This workplace will be instrumental in attracting and retaining quality employees, thereby providing collective energy for strengthening organisational performance. This study is therefore aimed to examine the relationship between organisational trust and employees’ job satisfaction in Nigerian banking industry.
Researchers has found through pilot study that many managers do not recognize the importance of employees’ trust and its effect on job satisfaction, on the other hand some managers belief that employee’ empowerment will reduce their authority. Trust in the workplace is an often-misunderstood concept. Organisational trust is a term that many managers and organizations think they understand, but few actually do, and even fewer really put into practice.
A lot of studies have focused on the relationships between organizational trust and employee’s job satisfaction but none/few has actually focused on the banking industry especially, Ecobank Nigeria Limited. Thus, this study searched for correlations among and between organizational trust and employee’s job satisfaction in the banking industry, using Ecobank Nigeria Limited as a case study. Hopefully, this study can help managers in Ecobank Nigeria Limited understand the needs of the staff and the factors that affect their job satisfaction so that they can modify or establish effective human resource systems accordingly.
The following research questions has been raised to guide the study:
1. What is the level of trust among employees in Ecobank Nigeria Limited?
2. What is the level of job satisfaction among employees in Ecobank Nigeria Limited
3. Is there relationship between organisational trust and employees’ job satisfaction in Ecobank Nigeria Limited?
4. What is the influence of organisational trust on organisational commitment?
5. What is the influence of employees’ job satisfaction on organisational commitment?
The following null hypotheses has been formulated to guide the study:
1. There is no significant relationship between organisational trust and employees’ job satisfaction?
2. There is no significant relationship between organisational trust and organisational commitment
3. There is no significant relationship between employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment
The objective of this research is to examine the effect of organisational trust on employees’ job satisfaction. Specifically, the study will:
1. Determine the level of trust among employees in Ecobank Nigeria Limited.
2. Assess the level of job satisfaction among employees in Ecobank Nigeria Limited
3. Examine the relationship between organisational trust and employees job satisfaction in Ecobank Nigeria Limited
4. Examine the influence of organisational trust on organisational commitment
5. Examine the influence of employees’ job satisfaction on organisational commitment
The result of this study will be useful to both the management of the bank and the employees.
The study will be of great benefit to the management of the bank as they will be exposed to the ways they can build trust among their staff and hence, increase their output.
Through the findings of the study, employees will understand ways they can enhance their performance for the growth of the organisation.
Lastly, the study will contribute to existing knowledge base of organisational researches by providing a broad picture of a wide range of variables affecting organisational commitment.
Organisational Trust: “Positive expectations individuals have about the intent and behaviours of multiple organisational members based on organisational roles, relationships, experiences and interdependencies” (Slockley, Zalabak, Ehis and Winograd, 2000:36).
Job Satisfaction: “A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (Locke, 1976, p. 1300).
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 88 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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