The effects of trust on organisational citizenship: a case study in North West Province – office of the premier

Abstract

Trust in an organisation among leaders is an important element that should be maintained by leaders in the organisation. This study seeks to identify the effect of trust in the organisation. The key focus was on the leaders in the organisation. The study utilises various theories of leadership such as early trait theory, Fielder's contingency theory and normative decision-making theory. The theories enable the researcher to understand the aspects of leadership and trust in an organisation. The study utilises the qualitative design and an interpretivist paradigm. The interpretive paradigm was aimed at interpreting the social construction of human views as in the case of this study. A purposive sampling was used to select participants. The study utilises 6 managers and 6 line managers in the identified departments in the office of the premier. An interview was the means of data collection and data collected were analysed and discussed in relevant themes and categories. Findings of the study revealed that trust has both positive and negative influences on leadership, the decision-making of the leaders should be trusted by the members of the organisation. As such, leaders in the organisation should create an atmosphere whereby they are trusted in their decision-making. It was also found that managers and line managers utilized for the study do not understand the leadership styles they possess. As such they find it difficult to create a balance between leadership and trust. Findings also revealed that various factors such as leadership attitudes, leader's workload, managerial competence and experience influence the leadership styles and trust they had to build among members of the organisational. The study recommends that Managers should understand the importance of organisational trust and work hard toward ensuring it for the success of the organisation, managers should ensure trust by working cooperatively with their subordinates to the success of the organisation and also involving them in decision-making.