The effects of trust climate on individual performance

Abstract

This paper explores the mechanism by which trust climate influences individual performance. From the perspective of psychological dynamics, we investigate the relationship among perceptions of organizational climate, motivation and individual behaviors to crystallize how a trustworthy organizational environment favors superior individual performance. 203 employees and their supervisors participated in this study, the results show that trust climate benefits individual performance through fostering psychological safety, which in turn influences individual performance via two mutually complementary pathways, namely ability to focus and organizational learning. Psychological safety is conducive to increasing individual ability to focus and improving job performance. Moreover, it is also instrumental in enhancing individual willingness to learn and experiment with new methods as an effort to achieve superior performance. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH 2009.