‘Jumper’ managers’ vulnerable involvement/avoidance and trust/distrust spirals

ABSTRACT

Earlier ascending/descending trust spirals have been explained by the job discretion allowed to employees by managers; few have studied such spirals as this has required a bi-directional longitudinal framework. Such a framework has used ethnographies of managers who ‘jumped’ from other organisations and suffered gaps of knowledge that curbed their psychological safety. Gap-exposing vulnerable involvement in locals’ deliberations would have been required for mutual trust building. These managers were mostly detached or autocratic and generated descending trust spirals which barred locals’ knowledge-sharing. In their ignorance they used immoral subterfuge, furthered distrust, shaped low-trust cultures, and mismanaged. However, detached/autocratic ‘jumpers’ often managed mediocrely by ‘riding’ on the successes of trusted vulnerably involved mid-levelers. Only a few ‘jumpers’ generated ascending mutual trust spirals by vulnerable involvement, learned from and with locals, and succeeded by shaping high-trust innovation-prone cultures. Contextual factors helped explain choices of practicing/avoiding vulnerable involvement and generating ascending/ descending trust spirals. Further study of these choices and these factors is suggested.

KEYWORDS:

• ‘Jumper’ managers
• knowledge gaps
• vulnerability
• authority defense
• trust/ distrust spirals
• psychological safety

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank editor Guido Möllering for helpful guidance and Joseph Raelin, Bryan Poulin, Benedicte Brøgger, Harry Collins, Gary Fine, Silvia Gherardi, Robert Evans, Rajiv Vashist, Rachel Kessel, Barbara Doron, and some anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts and articles that helped in developing the current article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr. Reuven Shapira is a retired senior lecturer of anthropology and sociology at the Western Galilee Academic College in Acre, Israel. He held various executive positions in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel and its industrial plant, acquired a managerial, sociological, anthropological, and psychological education, received his PhD from Tel Aviv University in 1984, and has lectured at academic colleges and universities. He authored has four books, booklets for managers, and many scholarly articles in both Hebrew and English, published in journals and collections. His most recent book, published by Routledge, is ‘Mismanagement, ‘Jumpers,’ and Morality’.

ORCID

Reuven Shapira http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4460-6026