The effect of future redeployment on organizational trust

This study compares levels of organizational trust and connected variables between two groups of employees from an Australian public health organization. One group (N = 123) is based in a hospital that will close as part of the organization's transformational strategy, and the other group (N = 152) is based in other hospitals that will remain open. The first group will become redeployed amongst departments in the remaining hospitals. The relationships between trust, transformational leadership, fairness, perceived organizational support (POS), commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB conscientiousness) and intention to turnover were investigated, in addition to the relative levels of these variables between the two cohorts of employees. The hypothesis that future redeployment would result in comparatively negative evaluations of organizational trust and associated constructs was not supported, whereas the hypothesis that traditional exchange relationships would be relevant regardless of an employee's situation was partially upheld. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.