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dc.titleEmployee Trust and Performance Constraints in Public Sector Organizations (Discussion Paper)
dc.contributor.authorVlaicu, Razvan
dc.contributor.authorKeefer, Philip
dc.contributor.orgunitDepartment of Research and Chief Economist
dc.coverageLatin America
dc.date.available2022-09-13T00:09:00
dc.date.issue2022-09-13T00:09:00
dc.description.abstractTheory suggests that employee trust is key to productivity in organizations, but empirical evidence documenting links between trust and constraints on performance is scarce. This paper analyzes self-collected data on public sector employees from eighteen Latin American countries and finds that individual-level trust is relevant to three types of performance factors. First, high-trust employees are more willing to collaborate and share information with coworkers and are more supportive of technological innovation. Second, high-trust respondents have different perceptions of organizational constraints: they are less concerned with low staff quality or lack of discretion to innovate, and more concerned with staff shortages. Third, trust in coworkers is associated with stronger mission motivation. Instrumental variable strategies based on the transmission of trust through social and professional channels account for potential sources of endogeneity. A survey experiment on preferences for social distancing policies provides further evidence that trust enhances mission motivation: employee policy preferences align better with the implied government policy when their trust in the public sector is higher.
dc.format.extent63
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004456
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Employee-Trust-and-Performance-Constraints-in-Public-Sector-Organizations.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectLabor Force
dc.subjectPerformance Evaluation
dc.subjectPandemics
dc.subjectPublic Sector
dc.subjectPublic Employment
dc.subjectHousehold Survey
dc.subjectSocial Distancing
dc.subjectDebtor Finance
dc.subjectCollaboration
dc.subjectEducation
dc.subject.jelcodeD23 - Organizational Behavior • Transaction Costs • Property Rights
dc.subject.jelcodeD73 - Bureaucracy • Administrative Processes in Public Organizations • Corruption
dc.subject.jelcodeH83 - Public Administration • Public Sector Accounting and Audits
dc.subject.keywordsperformance;public sector;mission motivation
dc.typeDiscussion Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-DP-00970
idb.operationRG-K1199
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