Trust and employee competence utilization - empirical testing of a model

In today's business practice, but also in academic research the aspect of trust has gained remarkable importance. The usage of resources is still often pictured on a short perspective. Especially the usage of human resources must be sustainable, based on long term balance of interests and supported by procedures and systems that anchor the anabolic balance of interest between company and employee (Moldaschl, 2008). Within the management of competencies, culture and values, the 'social capital' in terms of an 'asset of mutual trust' plays and important role. If the 'homo reciprocans' feels to be treated fair his own willingness to cooperate increases (Falk, 2002). Furthermore 'Trust in human relations is a binding framework under insecurity and allows decisions and actions that would not be possible based on pure rational information and consideration' (Strasser/Voswinkel, 1997). The question behind the research paper at hand is: 'Is a culture of trust leading to higher employee competence utilization?' This is of relevance as 'it is human capability and commitment that distinguishes successful organizations from the rest' (Storay, J. 2007), which is explicitly valid in times of skilled worker shortage. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a research approach to test the correlation between Trust and Employee Competence Utilization (ECU) - embedded in a Business Excellence (BE) setting. Based on a short insight in the theoretical foundation of the basic model behind the empirical study and the subsequent operationalization of the variables the basic empirical methodology is described. With this the paper shows the process of focussing and bounding from the general theoretical relation of Trust and ECU to a specific research question and it's correlating stepwise empirical approach. The paper at hand gives detailed insights in the logic of planning of the empirical test methods as well as the development of the derived interview lines and questionnaires. The findings of this paper broaden the research focus towards the complexity of the two variables, trust and ECU, but simultaneously introduce and suggest an empirical approach to lighten the possibilities of measuring both variables. First empirical results underline the concrete tangible approach towards a focussed structural equation model. As a next step the empirical results will be analyzed in detail and finally pictured in a validated Structural Equation Model.