Influence of Managerial Trust on Survivors’ Perceptions of Job Insecurity and Organizational Commitment in a Post Restructuring and Downsizing Environment

Abstract

Ó the Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management – Winter, 2003 – Vol. 4(3) Page 230Influence of Managerial Trust on Survivors’ Perceptions of Job Insecurityand Organizational Commitment in a Post Restructuring and Downsizing EnvironmentIsaiah O. UgboroNorth Carolina A&T State UniversityAbstractThis study examined the impact of organizational restructuring and downsizing on survivors’ perceptions of job insecurity, managerial trust and organizational commitment in public transit organizations. It studied, in addition, the relationship between managerial trust, perceptions of job insecurity and the organizational commitment environment. Job insecurity is assessed with measures of perceived threats to the total job, threats to job features, and the feeling of powerlessness or inability to control or prevent events that threaten the total job, job features and work situation. Using data from public transit organizations which have undergone restructuring and downsizing in the past decade, the study established relationships between perceived job insecurity, organizational commitment, and managerial trust. The results show that the impacts of an organizational restructuring and downsizing on perceptions of job insecurity and organizational commitment depended upon the type of organizational commitment and the source of job insecurity. The finding is that an organizational restructuring and downsizing increase continuance organizational commitment, reduce affective organizational commitment, and increase job insecurity. The results also show significant relationships between measures of managerial trust, perceptions of job insecurity and organizational commitment. Managerial and organizational implications of these findings are discussed.