The role of leadership in stimulating the growth of vertical trust in companies

Purpose: Trust is an important factor in supporting the management of employee teams. It plays a special role in developing interpersonal relations, leadership, and goal setting. The most important person who stimulates trust is the leader, who takes steps to build organizational trust. The aim of the paper was to identify the role of leadership in stimulating trust between managers and subordinates as an important factor in business development. The following research questions were addressed to achieve this aim: What relationships exist between vertical trust and intra-organizational processes in companies? To what extent do leadership attributes affect building vertical trust? To what extent do leadership attributes related to building trust influence enterprise growth? Design/methodology/approach: The research used a one-time survey method with the unweighted sample design, using mixed techniques: CATI telephone interviewing and CAWI web interviewing. The survey operator was a database of the 500 largest companies in Poland (according to the ranking of the Rzeczpospolita website). Based on the random sampling method, a research sample of 179 companies was collected. Findings: The study showed the impact of leadership attributes, i.e. attitudes of acceptance of others and open-mindedness, honesty and adherence to the rules, consistency in making decisions, compassion and empathy, on the process of building employees' trust in managers. Significant relationships between vertical trust and intra-organizational processes have also been identified. The results of the study confirmed the impact of vertical trust on both intra 24 organizational processes and the development of enterprises. Research limitations: Due to their quantitative nature (survey research), the study results lead to limited conclusions. Practical implications: The results provide insights into the use of leadership attributes in building organizational trust, which can support a trust-based organizational culture in modern companies. Social implications: The research results presented in this paper point to the important role of the manager in stimulating organizational trust in large companies. Originality/value: In a cognitive sense, the results contribute to understanding the role of leadership in building vertical trust and its impact on intra-organizational processes.