Knowledge Worker Trust Within Organisations

In Knowledge Worker Trust within Organisations, Dr McLoughlin develops a theoretical model which represents a new way of considering the knowledge worker and trust literature. Both academics and practitioners have observed structural changes in developed economies, generating widely accepted claims about the move to a society based on ‘knowledge’, ‘knowledge work’ and ‘knowledge workers’. These claims imply a need for more detailed research on the contexts, antecedents, and consequences of ‘trust’ in knowledge work. This book assesses the claims regarding the knowledge worker relationship with management, which assumes high levels of trust, providing quantitative analysis of workplaces in Australian Information Technology Industry. Quantitative analysis was undertaken for the immediate work area, the organisation and a combined model, using Partial Least Squares. Through clearly identifying aspects of the ‘soft focus’ ideas of the working conditions for knowledge workers, the centrality of trust in knowledge-based workplaces is demonstrated. The research reported in this book uses the experience of individual knowledge workers in their workplaces, providing a rare insight into the different impact of the behaviour of immediate managers when compared to senior managers. Because management behaviour has an impact on trust and employee engagement, this book will be useful to human resource managers as well as scholars.