Organisational Trust, Affective Commitment and Bureaucratic Control

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relationship between employee perceptions of organisational trust and their affective commitment. We also tested the extent to which the strength of this relation depended on the structural context. Data were provided by employees drawn from a variety of organisational settings. In addition to indicating their levels of organisational trust and affective commitment, study respondents were asked to describe their organisation's structure in terms of five bureaucratic characteristics. Consistent with our predictions, the relation between organisational trust and affective commitment was found to be more pronounced when the organisation's structure was less bureaucratic (controlling). However, there is also evidence for the paradoxical effects of bureaucracy as both enabling and disabling at the same time. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings, and consider whether bureaucracy is an enabling, disabling, or enabling-and-disabling organisational form.

Keywords: organisational trust, affective commitment, situation strength, organisational structure, work attitudes, perceived bureaucracy