Assessment 3 Trust and Workplace Relationships

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1 Assessment 3: Trust and Workplace Relationships Student Name: Abraham Kipkorir Tarus Student ID: 1818723 Course: MBA 401: People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership Date: June 12, 2023

2 Apply the concepts of trust and human behaviour to discuss how a leader can develop better workplace relationships Introduction Orgnaisations are complex systems since they are made up of the human resources, which is a large number of independent agents that interact with each other (Sanger & Giddings, 2012). The Complexity theory demonstrates that complex systems show common and predictable adaptive hehaviour patterns (Sanger & Giddings, 2012). Thus, for an organisation to have a better workplace relationship as a behaviour pattern, leaders and followers need to function effectively. One of the important aspects that allows this functioning is trust which allows for cooperation, effective communication, problem-solving, and performance within the organisation (Widyatmoko et al., 2020). According to Daft (2019) and Lussier and Achua (2015), workplace conflicts has negative effects on personal relationships and limit team effectiveness and cohesion. Thus, leaders are required to build trust within the organisation to promote human relationship and create better relationships at the workplace. This report aims to analyse how leaders could use trust to develop better relationships by understanding the relationships between people in an organisation (leader and followers), how leaders may destroy, create, or reinforce organisational culture through interactions with employees, and the role of trust between leaders and followers. Relationship between people in an organisation The relationship between the human resources in an organisation is a fragile one and could be influenced by various aspects. The relationship between the leader and the employees who are the followers is very essential. According Widyatmoko et al. (2020), studies have shown that transparency and honesty and effective communication is essential in building proper

3 relationships between a leader and the followers. The relationship between the leader and the followers is built through inspiration and motivation. Fredrick Herzberg through the two-factor theory emphasises on motivation and hygiene factors in improving relationships and employee performances (Daft, 2009) could help in showing the importance of the relationship between the leader and the followers. Motivation factors including achievement, job status, reward, recognition, responsibility, personal growth, and work may help leaders build good relationships with the followers (Lussier & Achua, 2015). On the other hand, hygiene factors including job insecurity, inadequate salaries, company policies, poor working conditions, and interpersonal relationships may affect the relationship between leaders and followers as they are highly dissatisfied (Lussier & Achua, 2015). The motivation factors build relationships, which improve team cohesion, and this improves employee performance. Both the leader and the follower are important parts of the organisations. The two positions interact with each other and require responsibility. According to Robbins and Judge (2017), leaders need to help followers grow while the followers aid in making a leader successful. When the relationship is good, they work for personal growth, which ultimately results in better organisational growth and performance (Chen et al., 2011). Additionally, a positive leader-follower relationship establishes a sense of belonging to each other and the organisation that results in motivation (Chen et al., 2021). The teams or employees could be motivated through a good relationship where they could work or even put in an extra effort. On the other hand, a negative leader-follower relationship results in poor cohesion and lack of motivation, which hurts the performance of the employees and that of the organsiation (Chen et al., 2021). When the relationship between the leader and follower is good, there is a creation of respect and trust, which allows a good or healthy workplace. Overall, leader-follower

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4 relationships are important for organisations since it ensures that the employees perform cohesively as a team to achieve the goals of the organisations. Thus, negative or poor leader- follower relationships results in low performances and this means that the general performance of the organisation would be reduced. As described, some of the ways to establish the relationship include through effective communication, honesty, and motivation. Leaders and organisational culture through employee interactions Leaders have an important role of ensuring that employee interactions are promoted through organisational culture (Robbins & Judge, 2017). Organisational culture just like the organisation itself is complex and dynamic in nature (Sanger & Giddings, 2012; Schein, 2016). Nevertheless, based on the Complexity theory, organisational culture entails values, beliefs, and behaviour that are adaptable by individuals that are involved with the organisation (Schein, 2016). Not all leaders know how to create or reinforce proper organisational culture as some may destroy the culture through poor interactions with employees. Witzel (2015) provides the examples of Volkswagen and Lehman Brothers where leaders destroyed organisational culture through poor employee interactions. At Volkswagen and Lehman Brothers, the leaders made the employees non-issues as they pursued profits while putting employees second and this led to the failure of the companies by hurting their cultures. Schein (2016) states that organisational culture and values need to be aligned in all hierarchical positions within the organisation starting from the leaders to the followers. Transformational leaders for example may create or reinforce organisational culture through involving the employees in most aspects in the organisation including decision-making. Transformational leadership ensures that the employees are inspired and motivated to grow through allowing them to be innovative and be involved in finding solutions for company

5 problems (Judge et al., 2002; Lussier & Achua, 2017; Davis, 2020).This allows the leaders to build authentic relationships with the followers and allows the shared goals to be met. Thus, through transformational leadership, leaders could build and foster organisational culture through good employee interactions. The Social Exchange Theory would be beneficial for leaders in creating and building proper organisational culture. The theory is psychological and sociological that studies behaviour between two people where relationship is created (Daft, 2009). Schein (2016) adds that the theory could be used as a metric to measure the effort by an individual within a relationship. In this case, the leaders and employees could built proper relationships with effort put in place used to determine if the relationship is good. Organisations need to have leaders and followers that follow the vision, norms, and mission of the company to establish strong interpersonal relationships. This is an important part of leaders building organisational culture through proper relationships or interactions with the employees. Through factors such as conflict resolution, openness, and friendliness allows leaders to establish enjoyable and good workplace environment that improves organisational culture. Role of trust between leaders and followers in building working relationships within organisations According to Dirks and de Jong (2022), trust is an essential in team or group cohesion. Trust in followers is defined as the mental state where it creates vulnerability in their working relationships based on assumptions, expectations, and convictions that the actions from the leaders would be useful, fovourable, and positive (Dirks & de Jong, 2022). For a good leader- follower relationship, trust is an important part as it allows for successful leadership and increased productivity resulting in improved organisational performance (Zheng et al., 2009).

6 Leaders are the ones required to build trust and this could be achieved in different ways including fairness, respect, and credibility (Dirk & de Jong, 2022). Through trust, leaders are able to initiate, maintain, elevate, and repair social relationships within the workplace. Dirk and de Jong (2022) state that the ultimate purpose of trust between a leader and a follower is to make teams within orgnisations function smoothly and collaboratively and make the workplace environment more humane. It is important to note that trust is not one way, as the leaders also need to trust their employees to the point that they are sure they would conduct tasks and duties effectively when delegated. However, it is the role of the leader to create this trust. Studies have established that followers are likely to trust leaders that show ethical behaviour, motivate, and encourage them (Chen et al., 2021). On the other hand, unethical or immoral behaviour from the leaders often result in mistrust and this impacts the performances of the employees (Chen et al., 2021). Trust is found in both the second and third tier of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivation Theory, which is part of the safety needs (Daft, 2009; Robbins & Judge, 2017). Within this section, employees need to have trust as one of the safety and security need. Employees that have trust on their leaders could function productively and ensure that the company goals and objectives are ultimately met. Thus, leaders to ensure that they build trust which also builds a sense of belonging. Without a sense of belonging, employees are not able to work productively as they do not feel part of the team or organisation. Thus, leaders should build trust with their employees, which ensures that they feel part of the group, and organisation that builds proper working relationships within the organisation. Thus, trust should be considered as a need and it should to be satisfied to improve working relationships between leaders and followers and between the followers themselves.

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7 Conclusion In sum, organisations require proper leadership for good performance. Part of leadership include good relationships between leaders and the followers, creating and reinforcing organisational culture and establishing trust that build working relationships. The leader-follower relationship is important for organisations. While both parties determine the relationship, leaders have the main role of building and promoting healthy leader-follower relationship. Leaders could promote the relationship through transformational leadership, effective communication, and motivation. The two-factor theory shows that motivation factors including achievement, job status, reward, recognition, responsibility, personal growth, and work may help leaders build good relationships with the followers. Leaders that create and reinforce organisational culture through good interactions ensure that organisational performance grows. Leaders could use the social exchange theory to build organisational culture through good and effective employee interactions. Finally, leaders should build trust between them and their employees through proper ethical behaviour, motivation, and encouraging the employees. Also, establishing trust fulfills part of the needs from the of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivation Theory and this in turn improves working relationships and improves productivity.

8 References Chen, Q., Yang, S., Deng, J., Lu, L. & He, J. 2021, ‘Relationship among leaders’ and followers’ work engagement and followers’ subjective career success: a multilevel approach.’ Frontiers of Psychology , vol. 12. Daft, R. 2009, Organisational theory and design . Cengage. Davis, S. 2020, ‘Inclusive leadership fosters an inclusive workplace culture: How do you transform your workplace culture to more inclusive and high performing?’ School Business Affairs , vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 12-15. Dirks, K. T. & de Jong, B. 2022, ‘Trust within the workplace: a review of two waves of research and a glimpse of the third.’ Annual Review of Organisational Psychology and Organisational Behaviour . vol. 9, pp. 247-276. Judge, T. A., Heller, D. & Mount, M. K. 2002, ‘Five Factor Model of Personality and job satisfaction: a meta-analysis.’ Journal of Applied Psychology , vol. 87, no. 530, p. 12. Lussier, R. & Achua, C. 2015, Leadership: theory, application and skill development . Cengage. Robbins S. P. & Judge, T. A. 2017, Essentials of organisational behaviour . Pearson. Sanger, M. & Giddings, M. 2012, ‘A simple approach to Complexity Theory.’ Journal of Social Work Education . vol.48. Schein, E. H. 2016, Organisational Culture and Leadership . Wiley. Widyatmoko, F. W., Pabbajah, M. & Widyanti, N. 2020, ‘The character of leadership in human resources development: A critical review,’ International Journal of Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurial Research, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 1-9.

9 Witzel, M. 2015, ‘When corporate culture goes toxic, from Lehman to Volkswagen. Accessed at: https://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/ygKc14yXwom3yLOkkDBgIL/When-corporate-culture- goes-toxic-from-Lehman-to-Volkswagen.html [June 5, 2023] Zheng, W., Qu, Q. & Yang, B. 2009, ‘Towards a theory of organisational cultural evolution. Human Resource Development Review . vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 151–173.

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