2026/02/02 by Tina Øllgaard Bentzen, Marte Winsvold, Frédérique Six · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Public Policy and Administration Research #Management and Organizational Studies #Social Capital and Networks
paper · doi:10.1080/14719037.2026.2623188
openalex publication_date 2026/02/02 · openalex created_date 2026/02/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
In response to neoliberal management practices, governance reforms are emerging that explicitly aim to build vertical trust with frontline employees. Through a comparative case study of two municipal trust reforms in differently regulated service areas, this study explores how efforts to build trust are influenced by the regulatory context. The results show that while highly regulated organizations face constraints in removing or redesigning institutional structures, they can still strengthen institutional trust by reinterpreting existing frameworks and introducing new ones. However, success of these reforms depends crucially on addressing both the institutional and interactional aspects of trust simultaneously.