Looking For Resilience

Trust is vital for the effective functions of establishing and sustaining long-lasting relationships between leaders and followers.In recent years,interpersonal trust in organizations has received increasing attention.A sizeable amount of research focuses on one stage of trust evolution cycle(e.g.,trust building,trust betrayal,or trust repair),and the research of trust evolution cycle has so far overlooked.We could not catch on the reason why some individuals could gradually trust or distrust the party,some could suddenly trust or distrust the party,and the strategies for trust repair are effective or ineffective until we connect each stage together and grasp the nature of trust dynamics.Thus,it is imperative to explore the underlying mechanism of trust evolution cycle and reveal the nature of trust dynamics.To address this,we review literatures about interpersonal trust in organizations,draw on social information processing(SIP)theory,and integrate three stages of trust dynamics,to explore the nature of trust dynamics between leaders and followers.We found the following three conclusions.First,there are two patterns of trust dynamics.One is the gradual pattern,which is characterized by resilience and uncertainty avoidance,and the path of gradual pattern among three stages is “assessment – incongruence with prior assessment – replay”.The other is the rapid pattern,which is characterized by sensitivity and flexibility,and the path of rapid pattern among three stages is “empathy – incongruence with self-concept – glittering”.Second,we propose a dual-path(i.e.,automatic and systematic paths)social information processing model of trust dynamics,to interpret how different kinds of social information facilitate trust development and how three stages systematically affect trust dynamics,and to reveal the nature of trust dynamics — “activation-verification” cyclical process.Third,we reveal that cognitive trust between leaders and followers can transform to affective trust through cognitive mutualembeddedness behavior and relational attachment,and the incongruence between followers' affective trust on leaders and feeling trusted by leaders can have consequential effects on ego depletion and,ultimately,cognitive trust on leaders.This study offers a number of theoretical contributions.First,our research contributes to the literature on interpersonal trust dynamics.Levels of trust in a social relationship can fluctuate over time,however,due to the complexity of trust dynamics,previous researches focused on only one or two stages of trust dynamics,which have neglected to explore the overarching mechanism throughout trust dynamics.By integrating three stages of trust dynamics,we describe two patterns of trust dynamics — the gradual pattern and the rapid pattern;propose a dual-path social information processing model of trust dynamics and reveal the “activation-verification” cyclical process which is throughout trust dynamics;explore the underlying mechanism of cognitive trust between leaders and followers escalating to affective trust is cognitive mutual-embeddedness behavior and relational attachment,and the mechanism of affective trust degrading to cognitive trust is ego depletion.Second,our study extends and expands SIP theory.The assumption of SIP theory is that individuals as adaptive organisms,shape their beliefs,attitudes,and behaviors to fit the salient information of the particular individual and situation,and the reality of their own past and present behavior.By exploring the nature of interpersonal dynamics,we claim that individuals are interpretive organisms rather than adaptive organisms.Human beings and animals are both environmental adaptors,the difference between human beings and animals is that human beings can interpret the social information,and individuals adjust the beliefs,attitudes,and behaviors according to the interpreted social information,rather than information per se.Third,we advance our knowledge of building high-quality leader-follower relationships.When the leader and follower engage in establishing and maintaining the high-quality relationship,they should extend beyond the social exchange of resources which leader-member exchange(LMX)theory highlights,joint together to explore the partner's potential through cognitive mutual-embeddedness behavior,then achieving mutual learning and growth.