Human Resource Practices and Employee Trust: A Systematic Review With a Guiding Framework

Abstract

Human resource (HR) practices hold great promise in fostering employee trust, and insights into how HR practices relate to employee trust are critical to evidence-informed management. However, extant research findings are fragmented and dispersed across disciplines and use a confusing plethora of concepts, limiting insights. To address these problems, we conducted a systematic review to offer a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of “what,” “how,” and “when” HR practices influence employee trust toward four referents (supervisor, management, peers, and organization). Specifically, we identify the evidence-based patterns regarding “what” HR practices are related to employee trust toward “what” referents, “how” HR practices are related to employee trust, and “when” HR practices are more or less related to employee trust. We find that while bundles of HR practices are positively associated with vertical trust toward management, lateral trust toward peers, and organizational trust, individual HR practices have differential associations with trust toward the four referents, which in turn predict different outcomes. We discuss research limitations and opportunities and provide a framework and set of methodological recommendations to guide a new wave of future research. We propose a broader set of theories to enrich understanding of “how” HR practices lead to employee trust, further clarifications on the HR and trust concepts examined, and explore additional moderators. These efforts will further integrate trust and HR research and generate more rigorous knowledge to inform management of employee trust through HR practices.