اعتماد و توانمندسازی روانشناختی در زمینه کار روسیه

For Russian organizations to achieve global competitiveness it is suggested that they must adopt the most appropriate forms of leadership and organization to encourage the necessary competencies to achieve these ambitions. In this conceptual paper we illustrate that Russian organizational leaders can stimulate improved organizational effectiveness through their encouragement of psychological empowerment amongst managers. In so doing, Russian managers experience intrinsic motivation to take greater responsibility for organizational performance. We propose that managers’ experience of psychological empowerment is related to their trust in organizational leaders since studies suggest that trust is a critical psychological state that determines the success of the empowerment process. Whilst the concepts of trust and psychological empowerment have extensive literatures there is limited examination of the relationship between the two constructs in different cultural settings. Our contribution is to illustrate the importance of trust as an antecedent to psychological empowerment within Russian organizations, an environment characterized by high power distance and collectivism. A number of management implications derive from our study.

A major goal following Vladimir Putin's` election to President of the Russian Federation in 2000 was to secure a place in the global economic community. A critical challenge for Russia's competitiveness remains in improving the microeconomic capability of the economy and the sophistication of local companies and local competition (Porter, 2003). For Russian organizations to compete successfully they need to adopt the most appropriate forms of leadership and organization to develop competencies to achieve these ambitions (Kets De Vries, 2000), since approaches to organisation and leadership differ in different cultural settings (Christopher et al., n.d and Fey et al., 2004). High power-distance and collectivism in particular characterise the Russian enterprise environment (Hofstede, 1980, Ralston et al., 1997, Ronen and Shenkar, 1985, Triandis and Gelfand, 1998, Vadi and Vereshagin, 2006 and Wagner and Moch, 1986). The competitive global environment demands the utilization of employee capabilities and potential in the organization through leaders` use of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational techniques (Chan, Taylor, & Markham, 2008). Psychological empowerment acts as an intrinsic motivator allowing employees to take personal ownership of their jobs, to exercise self-determination, satisfy their need for power and to reinforce their personal self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1989). Trust has been suggested as a critical psychological state that determines the success of the empowerment process (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). This conceptual paper examines how Russian managers` cognitive and affect-based trust in their leaders is an important antecedent to their feelings of empowerment. Whilst a number of studies link the constructs of trust and psychological empowerment, (Bandura, 1989, Chan et al., 2008, Costigan et al., 2007, Ergeneli et al., 2007 and Mayer et al., 1995) there has been limited examination of the relationship between the two constructs in different cultural settings. Additionally, whilst extant studies in the domain of trust focus on the relational notion of trust in exchange dyads, there is little investigation of employees` assessments of trust in their immediate manager (Ergeneli et al., 2007). Consequently, our contribution to the literature is to illustrate the importance of trust as an antecedent to psychological empowerment within Russian organizations through our exploration of Russian managers` assessments of leader trustworthiness. The paper is structured as follows. The first section presents the theoretical background of our study and conceptual model. We detail the context of our study and present the constructs of our model establishing the importance of managers` psychological empowerment in improving organizational effectiveness during transition to a market economy. We follow with a discussion of how managers` cognitive and affect-based trust in leaders is essential for the development of their feelings of empowerment. We highlight propositions which illustrate how our concepts are linked and propose that the constructs’ are mutually reinforcing. We conclude with some of the managerial implications that derive from our study and present the limitations.

As the Russian Federation furthers its ambitions towards global competitiveness it is necessary that organizational leaders exchange the legitimate power, control and supervision that they have over their employees with management practices that emphasize support and co-operation. Through our exploration of the relationship between cognitive and affect-based trust and psychological empowerment we illustrate how such an approach to leadership can be achieved in a work environment characterised by high power-distance and collectivism. We suggest that managers` cognitive and affect-based trust are predictors of overall psychological empowerment; a set of four cognitions (meaning, impact, competence and self-determination) that act as an intrinsic motivator allowing employees to take personal ownership of their jobs, satisfy their need for power, reinforce their personal self-efficacy beliefs and to exercise self-determination. Managers` cognitive and affect-based trust in organizational leaders permits a break with the traditional perceptions of managerial authority that have typically constrained employees` feelings of empowerment in this context. Additionally, this helps reduce the anxiety faced by Russian managers as they cope with the ongoing transition to a market economy. We propose that cognitive trust specifically influences the meaning and impact dimensions of psychological empowerment and that affect-based trust influences the competence and self-determination factors of the construct. Furthermore, we contend that the relationship between cognitive and affect-based trust and psychological empowerment becomes mutually reinforcing. This we contend is due to managers` experiential process of learning about the trustworthiness of leaders developed from interaction as the working relationship develops. A number of important implications derive from our study. Successful leadership approaches within Russian organizations will be dependent on effectively encouraging co-operation so that managers work autonomously in the pursuit of the organizations vision. At the same time, leaders must emphasize benefits to the collective, by demonstrating care and support in their leadership approach. To achieve this, leaders must emphasize their trustworthiness. Russian organizational leaders need to acknowledge that managers perceive trustworthiness from both cognitive and affective assessments of available evidence. In building positive cognitive perceptions of their trustworthiness Russian leaders need to emphasize their managerial credentials, technical competence and professional qualifications, as these act as clear signals from which employees may develop cognition-based trust. Additionally they must act fairly and consistently in dealings with managers. They should be open and honest in communications regarding pertinent aspects of the organization’s mission and organizational performance. In order to develop positive affect-based assessments of their trustworthiness leaders must demonstrate that they clearly understand their employees` needs, indicate that they are interested in listening and responding constructively and caringly by providing individual performance related feedback. This will require more frequent interaction with managers than has normally been the tradition within the Russian work environment. Such interaction will allow leaders to demonstrate they are also strong team leaders providing guidance, encouragement and support. In this way, leaders are perceived more as effective group members, rather than hierarchical authority figures, allowing power and control for organizational performance to be shared.