Relational trustworthiness: how status affects intra-organizational inequality in job autonomy.
Recent accounts of trustworthiness have moved away from treating it as a stable, individual-level attribute toward viewing it as a variable situated in a relational context, but have not been formalized or supported empirically. We extend status characteristics theory (SCT) to develop formal propositions about relational trustworthiness. We posit that members of task- and collectively oriented groups (non-consciously) infer three qualities from their relative status that are commonly used to determine an individual's trustworthiness: ability, benevolence, and integrity. We apply our formalization to clarify ambiguities regarding intra-organizational job autonomy inequality, thereby linking SCT to broader disparities rooted in job autonomy. We analyze data from a vignette experiment and the General Social Survey to test incrementally how well our propositions generalize across different settings and populations. Results generally support our proposed links between status and intra-organizational job autonomy. We discuss implications for SCT in understanding broader patterns of inequalities.
Dartmouth College, United States. Electronic address: celeste.campos-castillo@dartmouth.edu.
Celeste
C
Campos-Castillo
University of Iowa, United States.
Kwesi
K
Ewoodzie
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009938:Organizations; D011209:Power, Psychological; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D044469:Racial Groups; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035502:Trust; D014937:Work; D055815:Young Adult
Job autonomy; Status characteristics theory; Trust; Trustworthiness