**1. Introduction**

Until recently, organizational trust has been one of the under-researched concepts in scholarly investigations [1–3]. The primary reasons for this underdevelopment has noted by [1] is lack of unified definition of trust, conceptual clarity between risk and trust, trust and its precursor outcomes on one hand and the challenge of analytical vagueness and insufficient information on the trust party and the party to be trusted on the other hand. With all these conceptual issues

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woven around the term, available evidence shows that the field of organizational trust is still very fallow and it requires extensive exploration for its essentiality in fostering productive work performance and competiveness in the private and public organizations [4]. It is also very essential factor for promoting cooperative behavior among employees [5], sales and profits margins as well as employee retention in organizations [6]. Similarly, organizational trust has been recognized to be a crucial component of conflict management process in work organizations [7, 8]. This is essential because no organization can achieve cooperation between management and employees or among employees or even succeed without the availability of trust.

(i.e. excessive smoking, alcoholism, aggression towards others, work sabotage, decrease communication, resisting influence attempts) and physiological responses (health and physical challenges). Also, it can be positive in terms of personal initiative, innovation, motivation, shared opinions, effective communication and understanding of work place problems.

Organizational Trust as a Conflict Management Tool in Contemporary Work Organizations

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73092

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Moreover, a better understanding of the causes of organizational conflict will help in adopting suitable strategies or mechanisms to resolve it. Some researchers such as [10–14] have mostly classified the causes of organizational conflict under three categories which include; task conflict, interpersonal conflict and procedural conflict. Task conflict occurs when an employee is unclear about what is expected of him/her to perform, or how to perform the assigned task, task interdependent and/or when the task given to employees working in a group is not clearly defined by the supervisor. Interpersonal conflict arises when there is proliferation of ideas, or interests between individuals working together, scarce resources, lack of corporation, personality clash or interference over whom to be the first to complete a specific task. While, procedural conflict occurs as a result of bureaucratic bottle neck or disagreement over the procedures to be followed in achieving the set organizational targets or goals. In otherwise, management of organizational conflict cannot be handled with the impression of one-size-fit-all approach. In fact, within the spectrum of managing organizational conflict, there are difference approaches that have been developed by management experts such as; structural approach (i.e. change procedures of work, organization of work systems, physical layout or add more resources to resolve the disagreement between the conflicting parties), interpersonal approach (i.e. withdrawal, third-party intervention, smoothing, win-lose method, neutrality, bargaining or problem solving method) in handling workplace disagreements and disputes [15–18]. Apart from these approaches, organizational trust has been identified as a conflict resolution technique. This is partly to the fact that when there is conflict in an organization, there will be lack of cooperation, dissatisfaction, dishonestly and counter-productive behaviors which will invariably hinder the process of resolving the conflict for improve organizational behavior and performance. Thus,

organizational trust is seen as a tool for conflict management in work organizations.

Trust has been variously defined by several authors in the field of management and organizational behavior. According to [1], trust is the willingness of one party (let say party A) to be susceptible to the action of party B based on the expectation that party B will carry out important action that will benefit both parties irrespective of the ability of party A to control or coordinate the action of party B. To put it differently, trust can be defined as a psychological condition in which one party holds a positive attitude towards the other party about their relationships and/or the expectation of the outcomes of such relationships [19, 20]; leadership style, work activities as well as organization itself [8]. Trust can therefore be examined on personal, social, economic and organizational levels. Within organizational level, organizational trust can be described as a situation where employees and employers operate with strong feeling, confidence or belief that they are one-party and that none of them will exploit the vulnerabilities or

**3. What is organizational trust?**

With this in mind, it is important to simulate interests in promoting the knowledge and understanding of the use of organizational trust as a conflict management tool in contemporary work organizations. This chapter therefore examines the concept of conflict situation within the context of work relations. It discusses the concept of organizational trust and the determinant factors for building trust in an organization. The chapter also explains the Lewicki and Bunker model of interpersonal trust to show the stages of organizational trust. It examines some theoretical perspectives of trust in an organization. The chapter further develops an Organizational Trust and Conflict Management Framework (OTCMF) for effective conflict management in work organizations.
