How can top leadership build intra-organisational trust across hierarchical levels?

In the last decade, trust-based governance approaches have gainedprominence in public administration as a means of enhancingmotivation, cooperation and effectiveness. However, thedevelopment of trust across different layers in multi-levelorganisations is particularly complex. Top-level leadership mustbe willing to make itself vulnerable despite being unable tointeract directly with the entire organisation to assess stafftrustworthiness. Moreover, while intra-organisational trust mayemerge from the interplay between institutional and interactionaltrust, it remains unclear how this interplay can be effectivelyorchestrated across organisational levels. This observation begsthe question: How can top-level leadership build intra-organisational trust across hierarchical levels? This article exploresan empirical case in which top-level leadership successfullyadvanced intra-organisational trust across municipal levels. Basedon analysis of the interplay among different forms of trust, thestudy identifies three central factors that explain how top-levelleadership successfully developed trust. These include an initialact of trust by top-level leaders, a mutually reinforcing interplaybetween institutional and interactional trust, and theestablishment of dialogue-supporting structures that enabledinteractional trust to emerge. The article offers recommendationsfor practitioners and underscores the need for further research intrust development across multiple levels.