Trust, conflict and cooperative behaviour

Purpose In this introduction of the special issue “Trust, conflict and cooperative behaviour” the focus of the special issue is introduced: because al lot of attitudinal and behavioural employees' outcomes are based on reciprocity, they should be examined as a characteristic of relationships instead of a characteristic of employees. Design/methodology approach On a theoretical level reciprocity within organizations is considered by means of the social embeddedness approach and by means of leader member exchange. Findings Although reciprocity in relationships is well recognised in the academic literature seemingly little empirical work has been conducted on reciprocity in manager‐subordinate and subordinate‐subordinate relationships. Originality/value In this special issue, we try to fill in this gap and focus on the reciprocity within relationships to explain trust, conflict and cooperative behaviour within organisations.