Do human resource management practices boost up employees' impersonal trust? Evidence from the banking sector of Bangladesh

Purpose The main purpose of the study is to identify the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and impersonal trust. The study focuses on five HRM practices, namely training, fair reward and promotion opportunity, employment security and performance appraisal and impact of those on impersonal trust. Design/methodology/approach Data for the study have been collected from 384 front line service provider female employees of 39 private commercial banks through non-probability judgmental sampling technique and analyzed by applying structural equation modeling-partial least square (SEM-PLS) method. Findings The findings of the study reveals that all the five HRM practices, namely training, fair reward and promotion opportunity, employment security and performance appraisal, are positively and significantly related with impersonal trust. Originality/value Private commercial banks in Bangladesh are rapidly growing and facing huge competition to improve the competitive advantage of employees. Impersonal trust of employees is required for achieving competitive advantage. Due to the lack of research and scanty of knowledge in that field, the study offers a new avenue of existing knowledge to the stakeholders and researchers on how to develop impersonal trust with necessary recommendations.