Is managers' generalized trust decreasing? A generational analysis of managers and non-managers using European Social Survey data, 2002–2022

Purpose This article assesses whether the much-debated societal decline in generalized trust extends to managers. The importance of trust for organizations and employees' well-being is well recognized. However, paralleling the societal trust debate, many commentators believe that increasingly suspicious and distrustful managers are harming organizations. Design/methodology/approach Data analyzed are cross-national individual-level survey data from the European Social Survey (ESS), which is an established database in many social science disciplines. If managers' generalized trust is changing in a fundamental way, this trend should appear as a generational shift with younger managerial birth cohorts exhibiting lower trust than older cohorts. The article assesses this prediction for the period 2002–2022 using cross-classified multilevel regression analysis with managers' (and non-managers’) generalized trust as the dependent variable and birth cohort as the main independent variable. Findings Results indicate that in the sample studied younger managerial birth cohorts have significantly lower generalized trust and the downward generational trend in generalized trust is about twice as strong among managers as among the general population. Social implications Because younger managerial cohorts appear significantly less trusting than comparable non-managers are, there is solid ground for thinking that younger-generation managers are overly distrustful of people, which can affect, for example, hiring of non-family members and thus business growth. Organizations may find it useful to assess (prospective) managers' generalized trust. Originality/value Presenting the first systematic evidence on a downward generational shift in managers' generalized trust, the article's results indicate that the idea that managers' distrust is rising is not just popular lore.