Antecedents of supervisor trust in collectivist cultures: evidence from Turkey and China

The premise of much research on dyadic trust building within organizations has been framed around the relationship as it emerges in the work context. Such models, including the seminal Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) model of dyadic trust, have been applied to contexts outside North America without a careful understanding of the distribution of social practices and everyday situations in such contexts. This chapter examines culture-specific workways as a starting point for understanding subordinates’ trust in their supervisors in collectivistic cultures. Workways refer to the pattern of workplace beliefs, mental models and practices about what is true, good and efficient within the domain of work. Drawing from interviews with 60 organizational respondents from two countries, Turkey and China, we propose that the multiplexity of work relations needs to be taken into account as both personal and professional life domains are important for understanding supervisor-subordinate trust in collectivist cultures.