Typology of trust relationships: profiles of teachers’ trust in principal and their implications

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study is based on a multidimensional perspective of trust relationships proposed in the literature to classify the profiles of teachers’ trust in the principal. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the type and frequency of profiles of teachers’ trust in principal, and the implications of these profiles for teachers’ relational wellbeing and their organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB). Cluster analysis of a field survey data of 654 public primary school teachers in Israel was used to identify the profiles of teachers’ trust in the principal and the prevalence of various profiles. Analyses of variance show differences in teachers’ wellbeing and OCB as a function of trust profile. The findings and their implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective trust
• cognitive trust
• emotions
• organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB)
• trust in leader
• trust profiles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Izhak Berkovich

Izhak Berkovich, PhD, is a faculty member in the Department of Education and Psychology at the Open University of Israel. His research interests include educational leadership, ethics and social justice in school management, emotions in schools, politics and policy making in education, and educational reforms.