Faculty Perceptions Of Actions Of Community College Presidents That Increased Organizational Trust

Organizational trust refers to the tendency of individuals or groups within an organization to trust each other. Tschannen-Moran (2004) describes trust as one's "willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable, and competent" (p. 17). The purpose of this study was to research the faculty perceptions of actions of community college presidents that increase organizational trust. A single college case study was used for this study. To participate, community colleges had to be in the state of Washington, not be in a district, be at least 20 years old, and be of average size in the state, defined as having between 3,000 and 12,000 full-time enrollments. Also, the president and faculty union representative expressed willingness to support the research and indicated that the institution was an appropriate place to study organizational trust. Informants were required to be tenured faculty members with at least ten years at the college. Informants were recommended by the president, vice-president of academic affairs, and the faculty union representative. Thirteen faculty members were interviewed. Responses were analyzed and seven themes were created. Those themes were autonomy, communication, shared governance, interaction, commitment to excellence, putting people first, and shared vision. Autonomy, communication, commitment to excellence, and putting people first are very similar to those found in the Tschannen-Moran Model. However, shared governance, interaction, and shared vision all had a less direct connection to the model. Each theme consisted of many examples of actions of the president that increased organizational trust.