A motivational model of felt trust: The role of self-determination

Although several studies have provided evidence of a positive relation between employees' felt trust and task performance, the potential mediators of this relation are less well understood. Previous work on felt trust has largely assumed that trust acts as a social exchange resource and promotes reciprocity; however, this assumption fails to consider the potential mediating role that motivation might play in shaping employee performance. To address this shortcoming, the present study proposes a motivational model for felt trust, whereby employee felt trust is theorized to impact task performance by first increasing employees' need satisfaction from a self-determination (i.e., intrinsic motivation) perspective. A sample of 100 participants took part in a multi-stage experiment using a networked computer simulation. Participants were randomly assigned to a high or low felt trust condition and given ostensible "performance feedback", after which their need satisfaction and task performance on subsequent simulations was measured. The results indicate that the performance feedback was successful at manipulating participants' felt trust, and that participants' level of felt trust was positively related to their need satisfaction. However, need satisfaction itself was not directly related to task performance. Implications and future directions are discussed.