Are employment relations in Europe based on trust? The employee representative perspective

Abstract

Numerous researchers from various disciplines agreed that trust has important benefits for organizations (Dirks & Ferrin, 2001) and their members (Kramer, 1999). However we sometimes find not that easy to achieve the appreciated and desired trust in employment relationships. In this paper, firstly we define the concept of trust and its importance in the European industrial relations. Secondly, we explore how employee representatives (ER) around Europe perceive the relationship with management as well as with co-workers, focusing on trust. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion and some practical recommendations that can help ERs to increase trusty relationships, improving the capacity to participate in the decision making process and leading to a more constructive conflict management.