Browsing by Author "Walker, Morgan"

Trust is term that spans a variety of disciplines. The study of workplace trust is one of the main fields in trust research. Numerous studies have noted differing operationalisations of trust, which can be dependent on cultural context. Focusing attention on the Finnish educational context provides an opportunity to closely examine trust in a specific working environment, with comparisons to other cross-cultural studies. Specifically, two aims were considered: how is trust in the Finnish education system from a managerial perspective conceptualised, and how the conceptualisation of trust relates to the representation of professionalism in the Finnish education system. Grounded theory and social representations were utilised to examine the construction of trust with the workplace. It was found that that trust was conceptualised over 4 key areas: building trust through open communication, agreeing on procedures, professionalism prioritised over emotion, and working for common goals and higher purpose. Professionalism was found to be highly interlinked with open communications and agreeing on procedures. Overarching themes of the study were further discussed, and directions for future trust research were suggested.