Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

11-2017

Abstract

Early work on trust in social science highlighted how the lack of trust between individuals can cause social division, contribute to social stratification, and reduce economic opportunities for people from all social groups. We integrate this work with organizational research on antecedents of trust to generate predictions explaining when and why low employee socioeconomic status (SES) can be a barrier to trust. We discuss how this process can impair the success of both organizations as well as their lower-SES employees. We present a model, and data, suggesting that lower-SES employees will be both more distrusted as well as more distrustful relative to their higher-SES colleagues. This, in turn, locks them out of potentially advantageous social and economic exchanges. Our theory adds precision in detecting when and why lower-SES employees face barriers to success in organizations, as well as provides a blueprint for studying the impact of trust on socially disadvantaged groups in organizations.

Keywords

Trust, Disadvantage, Socioeconomic status

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Research in Organizational Behavior

Volume

37

First Page

83

Last Page

101

ISSN

0191-3085

Identifier

10.1016/j.riob.2017.10.006

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2017.10.006

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