Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
6-2024
Abstract
This research investigates how formal versus informal supervisor support behaviours shape employees' affect- and cognition-based trust across cultures of varying power distance. Using data from in-depth interviews, Study 1 found that trust-enhancing supervisor behaviours were more formal, status conscious and imposing in India (a high power distance culture) than in the Netherlands (a low power distance culture); unlike in India, supervisors acted more like friends or equals with their subordinates in the Netherlands. Using vignettes, Study 2 found that, compared to informal support behaviours, formal support behaviours increased both affect- and cognition-based trust among Indian participants, but among US participants, formal support behaviours only increased cognition-based trust. Study 3 conceptually replicated those findings by manipulating power distance in an organization. Together, the findings from these three studies suggest that supervisors' formal socio-emotional support behaviours are particularly effective in increasing affect-based trust in societal and organizational cultures that are high power distance.
Keywords
culture, formal, informal, power distance, socio-emotional support, trust
Discipline
Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory
Research Areas
Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources
Publication
Asian Journal of Social Psychology
Volume
27
Issue
2
First Page
203
Last Page
218
ISSN
1367-2223
Identifier
10.1111/ajsp.12590
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
CHO, Jaee; WASTI, S. Arzu; SAVANI, Krishna; TAN, Hwee Hoon; and MORRIS, Michael W..
Formal versus informal supervisor socio-emotional support behaviours and employee trust: The role of cultural power distance. (2024). Asian Journal of Social Psychology. 27, (2), 203-218.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7363
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12590