Doing Trust: Managers’ Rhetorical Strategies of Trust

• In Event: 1184 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 08. Management and Performance

Abstract

How do managers “do trust” in hierarchical relationships with workers? Over the past several decades, managerial theory has been preoccupied with the topic of trust. Yet, few studies in the sociology of work have empirically examined the ways in which managers work to cultivate trust among their employees. Through ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews at a marketing firm and restaurant, this study finds that managers employ distinct rhetorical strategies of trust based on the unique managerial challenges they face and the political outcomes they seek.

Author

• Sarah Elizabeth Mosseri, University of Virginia