Power and the spillover effects of past trust experiences

Research Seminar

Management & Human Resources

Speaker: Marlon Mooijman

Rice University

room Bernard Ramanantsoa

Abstract: Trust is a cornerstone of successful work relationships and, according to rational-choice theories, should only be affected by interactions with persons in those work relationships and not by trust experiences with third parties outside of them. Yet, research on the experiential view of trust has shown that the decision to trust someone in one work relationship is often impacted by trust experiences with third parties outside of that relationship. To reconcile the rational viewpoint that third-party spillover effects should not occur with the experiential viewpoint of trust that they do, I propose that power helps explain when and why trust is subject to spillover. Specifically, I argue that high-power individuals do not let trust experiences with third parties shape their trust in other relationships whereas low-power individuals do. I also develop a theoretical model that explains why this occurs, arguing that power prevents spillovers because high-power individuals are better than low-power individuals at preventing the emotions that result from third-party trust actions from shaping their trust. I further theorize that normative beliefs—the belief that individuals should not allow spillovers—are a prerequisite for these effects to emerge. I find evidence for these predictions across three (multi-wave) studies that use a variety of samples, measurements, and manipulations. Taken together, these findings integrate opposing theoretical perspectives on trust spillovers, advance the idea that power can lead to more normative trust, and suggest that organizations can view the power they grant employees as an asset for the trust decision-making process.