The Relationship of Multiple Leadership Factors with Organizational Trust in Businesses: A Healthcare Business Example

Abstract

Purpose – The study aims to examine the relationship between healthcare workers' organizational trust levels and their leadership styles.
Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, a survey was conducted with employees of a private hospital in Istanbul. A total of 160 healthcare workers voluntarily participated in the study. Data from 4 participants were excluded due to incomplete responses. Participants were first asked some demographic questions, followed by the Organizational Trust Scale developed by Cummings and Bromiley, and the Leadership Behavior Scale developed by Bass and Avolio. The reliability of the scales was examined using Cronbach's Alpha analysis. Correlation analysis was performed to test the relationship between the factors, and regression analysis was conducted to determine whether the relationships found were statistically significant.
Findings – The analysis revealed a weak, negative correlation between organizational trust and the transformational leadership factor (r = -0.336; p = 0.000 < 0.01) and a moderate, positive correlation between organizational trust and the transactional leadership factor (r = 0.500; p = 0.000 < 0.01).
Discussion – The results of this study are consistent with previous research on the same topic. However, the lack of a relationship between laissez-faire leadership and organizational trust differs from earlier studies, suggesting that further research could contribute to the field. Since the study was conducted in a private hospital, future research should also be conducted with employees of public hospitals to allow for a comparison between private and public sectors.