Studying Interorganizational Trust in Public Administration

What is it about?

This article argues that interorganizational trust is a crucial but understudied topic in public administration research. It consolidates the relevant literature and identifies the conceptual building blocks that are required to study interorganizational trust and distrust as specific phenomena in public administration. The authors argue that both trust and distrust can be considered to have certain functionalities and dysfunctionalities for interorganizational interactions in public administration, and discuss the dimensions and sources of interorganizational trust and distrust in such interactions. The article consolidates these discussions in the concept of ‘administrational trust’, which is defined as “a subjective evaluation made by boundary spanners regarding their intentional and behavioral suspension of vulnerability on the basis of expectations of a trustee organization in particular interorganizational interactions in public administration”. The authors construct and present a framework for analysis of the mechanisms of administrational trust and distrust, and argue that it also allows the development of management strategies to optimize interorganizational trust-distrust distributions in order to facilitate, solidify and increase the performance of interorganizational cooperation in public administration.

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Why is it important?

The article presents a overview of the concepts that are central to the study of interorganizational trust and distrust, and constructs a valuable analytical framework to study the empirical mechanisms underlying interorganizational trust and distrust. As such, this article makes a contribution to existing literature by providing a canvass for theory, research and managerial strategies of administrational trust and distrust, and can therefore support public administration to build the self-confidence it needs to provide better services and ultimately strengthen the trust it receives from the society it intends to serve