The influence of organisational trust on employee satisfaction in an unstable political enviroment

Abstract

The outcome of this research paper provides an emphasis on the role of trust as a trigger for the turnaround strategy that can influence employees’ behaviour, and hence increase satisfaction levels within the organisation in challenging moments of unstable political environment. The aim of understanding trust in this context, is thus to reduce the incidents of business interruptions and eventually improve business performance. Dimensions of trust were categorised into affect-based and cognition-based trust. Furthermore, two influencing moderators; internal communication within the organisation and organisation commitment among employees; were introduced to explicitly identify the dynamics of the relationship between the dimensions of trust and job satisfaction. The study was completed using a survey conducted in Egypt, during the critical period after the president was ousted and there was a take-over by the military, which caused massive turbulence to the business environment. Data was collected from four different firms operating in different industries. The multiple regression model was able to identify the vital role of cognition-based trust as a dominant trigger for job satisfaction. Moreover, internal communication and organisational commitment were found to moderate the impact on the relationship between dimensions of trust and job satisfaction, and hence are able to stimulate improved job satisfaction, thus improve business performance.