**4.3. Social capital perspective of organizational trust**

Social capital perspective (SCP) of organizational trust was derived from the work of Pieere Bourdieu, James Coleman and Robert Putnam [51, 52]. It emphasizes the stimulating combination of sociology and economics insights in understanding social relationships in work organization. The term social capital has been accorded with diverse definitions by authors yet majority of the definitions described the term as networks of social relationships that bind people and organizations together for achieving desirable socio-economic benefits. These networks of social relationships are realized from constant social interaction to attain short and long term socio-economic benefits over time. For instance, Lyda Hanifan sees social capital as tangible assets such as goodwill, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among the individuals and families who make up a social unit. In another view, social capital is described as the links, shared values and understandings that enable individuals and groups in a particular social setting to trust each other and so work together for productive benefits. Based on this premises, social capital theorists see trust as a very important part of social capital. For example, [53] argues that a system of mutual trust is an important form of social capital on which future obligations and expectations may be based. Also, [54] regards trust as a source of social capital that sustains economic dynamism and governmental performance while [55] (1998) perceives trust as a key facet in the relational dimension of social capital. Social capital perspective therefore emphasized the importance of trust in ensuring harmonious relationships between workplace actors. It also postulates that organizations that operate with trust, shared norms and cooperation instead of hierarchy or hierarchically defined carrots and sticks, formal monitoring and economic incentives, encourage the adoption and effectiveness of flexible or high-performance work practices [56]. This postulation is based on the fact that trust reinforce norms of reciprocity, reduce the volume of energy lost to doubt, unresolved issues, and associated uncertainty anxiety that otherwise often results in blame, gossip, resentment, frustration and conflict. It also reduces the time spent in the process of collective agreement enforcement and compliance in work organizations [55].

employers) in work relations [43]. Sustaining teamwork, collaboration and harmonious relationship in work relations inevitably reduce workplace disputes and counter-productive behaviors which significantly lead to successful attainment of organizational goals and objectives. On the other hand, TCF identifies that in a situation where there is a breach of contract between the actors of work organization, there is likely to be disagreement, distrust and counter-productive behavior that may degenerates to conflict situation between the actors [43]. Thus, conflict situation occur in work organization due to contract failure and lack of trust between the actors.

The cognitive sociology perspective of organizational trust takes a different dimension from that of economic theory of contract failure. Cognitive sociology perspective (CSP) focuses on social and psychological perspectives of trust. CSP believes that trust is socially constructed and is fundamentally built on the level of motivation or kind of behavior display by actors in work relations or organizations. It is a theory that assumes that workplace actors (employees and employers) practically interact with, delegate responsibilities to or rely on the behavior of one another so as to achieve predetermined goals. More so, CSP postulates that trust emanates from constant and predictable human behavior, social environment, and social situations. The main tenets of CSP are as follows; in work organizations, actors depend on trust for necessary interaction, delegation and cooperation. As a matter of necessity, actors take for granted the actions of others and rely on normative infrastructures in performing the contractual duties or organizational activities. The reliance on normative infrastructures by the actors as a tool in dealing with each other stimulates organizational trust [44]). As such, [45] opined that there are three types of trusts which include *Characteristic-based trust* (this is trust tied to a person, depending on socio-demographic characteristics), *process-based trust* (this is a trust tied to previous or recent exchanges in reputation or gift exchanges between individuals), and *institutionally-based trust* (this is a trust based on institutions such as certifications, form characteristics, or legal constraints). Furthermore, CSP premised that organizational trust is a functional substitute to rational calculation that actors may adopt in the process of lessening social complexity. This is so because studies have shown that when there is trust in an organization, social interactions and activities occur on a simple and confident basis but in the absence of organizational trust, the fear of future contingency or social complexity influence work relations and behavior of actors in meeting organizational goal [46–49]. Organizational trust implies the social properties (roles, rules and relationships) of an organization [50]. The properties which make it possible for cooperative behavior to exist among workplace actors, across varying cadres, time and space which lend them systemic form [47]. So trust exist in work organization through cognitive process that imbibe in workplace actors with the capacity to do what ordi-

narily they would not have been willing to do in achieving organizational goal.

Social capital perspective (SCP) of organizational trust was derived from the work of Pieere Bourdieu, James Coleman and Robert Putnam [51, 52]. It emphasizes the stimulating combination of sociology and economics insights in understanding social relationships in work organization. The term social capital has been accorded with diverse definitions by authors

**4.3. Social capital perspective of organizational trust**

**4.2. Cognitive sociology perspective of organizational trust**

44 Organizational Conflict
