How managers direct subordinates using applications of controls and demonstrations of their trustworthiness

Abstract

This paper refines and extends ideas about trust-control relationships by describing a theory of managerial action that outlines how managers combine their efforts to apply controls and demonstrate their trustworthiness. Findings from two surveys and one experiment provide support for hypotheses that managers systematically integrate their control and trustworthinesspromotion activities by combining: applications of outcome controls with demonstrations of credibility, applications of behavior controls with demonstrations of capability, and applications of clan controls with demonstrations of consideration. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this perspective advances research on organizational control, organizational trust, and trustcontrol relationships.