The role of organizational trust in the regulation of work attitudes and labor behavior of industrial employees

The discussion about the social base of modernization processes in Russia raises topical issues concerning the adequacy of sociocultural characteristics of modern industrial personnel in the context of the country’s orientation toward a new technological paradigm. It is also important to study the conditions that stimulate the development in employees of qualities that are in demand by an innovative economy. The results obtained by foreign authors show that trust stimulates the formation of organizational commitment interested and responsible attitude to work, initiative in the workplace. Russian sociologists also note the positive role of organizational trust, but its role in the development of pro-organizational attitudes and labor behavior has not been sufficiently investigated so far. The paper presents the results of a sociological study conducted at two Perm industrial enterprises (n=2,186 respondents). The study shows that trusting relationships between management and employees play an important role for the formation of organizational commitment, corporate solidarity, pro-organizational behavior, productivity, innovative activity, etc. These results allow us to conclude that the creation of conditions conducive to the development of trust can contribute to the development of personnel’s qualities necessary for the introduction of new equipment and technologies and, thereby, stimulate the development of the social base of modernization processes in the economy as a whole.