The impact of national cultural dimens'ons on trus between employees and managers

This study examines the impact of Hofstede (1980) national cultural dimensions on trust using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Using qualitative data from eight informants and drawing on our review of cross-culture trust literature, we define interpersonal trust and derive a model of its relationship with national culture. Afterword, in-group favoritism is added to the model as a context specific variable to test it as a moderator between collectivism and trust. Regression analysis results indicate that three of Hofstede's national cultural dimensions namely collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity are positively related to trust, however, power distance is negatively related to trust. Results also indicate that the ingroup favoritism has a moderating positive effect on collectivism while predicting trust. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three trust components: competence trust, benevolent trust, and fairness trust. Further exploratory analyses between trust components and Hofstede (1980) dimensions of national culture indicate that the different components of trust affect cultural orientations differently. Further analysis also indicate that the in-group favoritism variable is moderating the negative relationship between power distance and trust. However, paths between uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and trust are not mediated through the in-group favoritism variable. As a result of this study, the concept of trust and its different components in the study context were identified. Hofstede's (1980) four cultural dimensions were linked to trust and its components. In addition, the in-group favoritism was tested as a moderator between Hofstede's (1980) four dimensions of culture and trust, which is an important contribution to the research in this field. Key words: Employee-Manager Relationship, In-group Favoritism, National Culture, Trust.