MASTER
THESIS
An agile organization:
The influence of trust and empowerment on
the agility of an organization
Inge van Meurs
351568
Rotterdam School of Management
MSc. Human Resource Management
Coach:
Dr. W.P. van Ginkel
Department of Organisation and Personnel Management
Co-reader:
Dr. M. van Oosterhout
Department of Decision and Information Sciences
Rotterdam, September 5th 2012
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This master thesis is the final result of my career at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Directly after graduation at the Hogeschool Rotterdam, I decided to obtain a master’s degree in
Human Resource Management (HRM) at the Erasmus University. In order to get permission to start
the master in HRM, I had to follow a pre-master in Business Administration first. Although the premaster in Business Administration was a tough year, good grades motivated me to finish it. The HRM
master consists of a small group of motivated students, in which every student felt comfortable to
take part in discussions. Due to this we were able to learn a lot from each other. Therefore, I would
like to thank my professors for their effort to motivate us and thank my colleagues because we
learned a lot from each other. After the courses, the most challenging part started: writing a master
thesis. By writing this acknowledgement, it almost comes to an end. And although there were a lot of
learning moments, I am proud of the result: this thesis.
The research question for this master thesis is ‘Do trust and empowerment influence the
agility of an organization and how does agility in turn influence the productivity?’ In my adventure to
find an answer to this question, many people helped and supported me. First, my parents who gave
me the opportunity to obtain a master’s degree. Second, a special word of thanks to my boyfriend,
Barry Berkhout, who supported me during the period I was working on my thesis. Not only in times
when the thesis went well, but especially during hard times when I experienced some difficulties. He
always supported me to reflect on what went wrong and to look for new options. Third, I owe a
great word of thanks to my coach, Wendy van Ginkel, who was willing to help me out even though I
came to her in the middle of writing my master thesis. The same applies to my co-reader, Marcel van
Oosterhout, who always had some critical notes, additional to the feedback of Wendy. I highly value
their feedback on my work, which always was clearly explained and argued. Further, I want to thank
Janieke Bouwman, Nick van der Meulen and the other participants of the New World of Work
(NWOW) project team for their feedback during the monthly NWOW meetings. Finally, for the
opportunity to gather the data, receive input and feedback on my written work and have discussions
about the practical side of my thesis; I would like to greatly thank Mariёlle Roozemond and Jetske
Roetman of PMtD.
I hope you all will enjoy reading my thesis.
Inge van Meurs
Rotterdam, August 2012
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
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The author declares that the text and work presented in the Master thesis is original and that
no sources other than those mentioned in the text and the references have been used in creating
this Master thesis.
The copyright of the Master thesis rests with the author. The author is responsible for its
contents. RSM, Erasmus University is only responsible for the educational coaching and beyond that
cannot be held responsible for the content.
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ABSTRACT
Today’s highly dynamic environments require organizations to act quickly and adequately in
responding to changes in these environments. In order to do so, organizations should be agile. While
the traditional response to uncertainty and risk was to increase control by either collecting more
information or by reducing organizational complexity (i.e. avoid uncertainty) (van Fenema & van
Baalen, 2005), within the new worlds of work the response is based on adequately dealing with the
uncertainty and risk situations (i.e. adapt to uncertainty) (Dove, 2001).
Besides, within the new worlds of work, there is a tendency toward teleworking, which refers
to a way of working in which a person is able to work place independent and to work flexible in time
(Hill et al, 2003; Gajendran & Harrison, 2007; Kurland & Bailey, 1999). By taking this into account, the
main question of this research was to find out what effect the relational dimension (i.e. trust and
empowerment) will have on the agility of an organization, and what effect agility in turn has on
performance.
To test the research question and the underlying hypotheses, a survey was conducted by
collecting surveys in 28 companies, all business relations of the company PMtD. As a result from the
analysis, conclude can be that empowerment and trust in colleagues do not directly lead to an agile
organization, while trust in management and trust from management positively influence the agility
of an organization.
Agility does influence the performance* of an organization (i.e. aggregated productivity), but
this relationship is not strengthen by the moderator environmental turbulence though. The dataset
on the organizational level found a moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the
relationship between agility and performance.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Acknowledgement................................................................................................................................... 1
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2
1.
2.
3.
4.
Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1.
Agility ..................................................................................................................................... 5
1.2.
Empowerment ...................................................................................................................... 8
1.3.
Trust ..................................................................................................................................... 10
1.4.
Performance ....................................................................................................................... 12
Conceptual model ......................................................................................................................... 13
2.1.
Independent variables ..................................................................................................... 13
2.2.
Dependent variables ........................................................................................................ 15
2.3.
Overview conceptual models ......................................................................................... 16
Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 18
3.1.
Sample ................................................................................................................................. 18
3.2.
Data collection ................................................................................................................... 18
3.3.
Measurements ................................................................................................................... 19
3.4.
Validity and reliability analysis ..................................................................................... 22
Results ........................................................................................................................................... 25
4.1.
Preliminary analysis ......................................................................................................... 25
4.2.
Individual level of analysis ............................................................................................. 26
4.3.
Organizational level of analysis .................................................................................... 27
4.4.
Aggregate level of analysis ............................................................................................. 27
4.4.1.
Step 1 Regression model of independent variables on dependent variable ................ 29
4.4.2.
Step 2. Regression model of independent variables on the mediating variable .......... 30
4.4.3.
Step 3. Regression model of mediating variable on dependent variable ..................... 31
4.4.4.
Step 4. Regression model of mediating effect .............................................................. 32
4.5.
5.
Discussion ...................................................................................................................................... 35
5.1.
6.
Hypotheses overview ....................................................................................................... 34
Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 35
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 38
6.1.
Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 38
6.2.
Theoretical implications ....................................................................................................... 38
6.3.
Practical implications............................................................................................................. 38
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Inge van Meurs
6.4.
Limitations and future research ............................................................................................ 39
Bibliografie ............................................................................................................................................ 41
Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 47
Appendix A: Survey on individual level ................................................................................... 47
Appendix B: Survey on organizational level ........................................................................... 50
Appendix C: Factor analysis ....................................................................................................... 52
Appendix D: Reliability analysis ................................................................................................ 55
Appendix E: Regression analysis organizational level ......................................................... 56
Appendix F: Regression analysis step 1 ................................................................................... 57
Appendix G: Regression analysis step 2 .................................................................................. 58
Appendix H: Regression analysis step 3 .................................................................................. 59
Appendix I: Regression analysis step 4 ................................................................................... 60
Appendix J: PROCESS analysis .................................................................................................... 62
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INTRODUCTION
Today’s highly dynamic environment requires dynamic business environments as well.
Throughout the last decades an economic shift took place from an industrial based national economy
to an information or knowledge based national economy (Drucker, 1969; Hill, Ferris, & Martinson,
2003). In a knowledge based economy, the input of employees is more about theories, concepts, and
ideas than manual skills and/or muscle power (Drucker, 2007). In the information technology (IT) for
instance, knowledge workers are systems analysts, computer programmers, and IT consultants. By
the improved information technology, which made mobile internet possible, the business world
experienced a great boost. Communication and decision making can be done faster and thus the
predictability decreased. Uncertainty and risk are factors that arose and organizations had to learn
how to deal with it, since in the current changing environment stability and predictability have
decreased (Baalen, Fenema, & Huysman, 2006). While the traditional response to uncertainty and
risk was to increase control by either collecting more information or by reducing organizational
complexity (i.e. avoid uncertainty) (Fenema & Baalen, 2005), within the new worlds of work the
response should be based on adequately dealing with the uncertainty and risk situations (i.e. adapt
to uncertainty) (Dove, 2005). Organizations should act quickly, involve their consumers, and become
more flexible in adjusting to new situations.
As a consequence of these developments, the internal business environment of an
organization must be able to adapt toward change. An organization must be able to react fast and
flexible in adapting to the continuously changing demands of this environment. Sherehiy, Karwowski,
& Layer (2007) argue that one of the methods to do this is by being an agile enterprise. Besides
becoming more flexible, responding quickly, and involving your partners and customers is getting
more important as well. This means that organizations must be more agile in order to respond to
those changes. However, being agile does not only include reactive behavior, it includes proactive
behavior as well, and thus actively follow and anticipate on trends and developments in the external
environment.
Another consequence of the upstream of mobile internet is the possibility of teleworking.
Telework refers to a way of working in which a person is able to work place independent and to work
flexible in time (Hill, Ferris, & Martinson, 2003; Gajendran & Harrison, 2007; Kurland & Bailey, 1999).
Telework is one of the important aspects of the new worlds of work, identified by practitioners as Bijl
(2009). Within the new worlds of work, three pillars are identified. The first pillar is called ‘bytes’ and
refers to technology. A lot can be regulated or can be replaced by new and mobile technology.
Therefore, only the tasks where people are essential for the process will not be replaced by
technology. In this knowledge economy people are key in the processes. While in the industrial based
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economy the processes were the central points. The second pillar focusses on the ‘behavior’ of the
people in organizations. Besides the pillars bytes and behavior, there is a third pillar ‘work
environment’. As described earlier, telework is one of the main characteristics of the new worlds of
work, which means that working time and place independent is possible. Due to the before
mentioned changes and developments, it is no longer needed for employees, and in particular
knowledge workers, to work from the traditional office or desk. Telework claims that working from
different places is possible: working from the traditional office, working from home, or working from
any other possible place (Hill, Ferris, & Martinson, 2003). The new worlds of work is a method to be
agile.
Although some voices may argue that if the elements regarding technology are available
within an organization, the rest will follow automatically. Opponents of new worlds of work
challenge this statement, they argue that two additional aspects exist in the context of new worlds of
working, namely behavior and work environment. For this master thesis the focus will be on the
relational dimension (Baalen P. v., 2011). Human behavior is regulated by intrinsic and/or extrinsic
motivation. Intrinsic motivation is, according to Ryan & Deci (2000), the inherent tendency to seek
out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise one’s capacities, to explore and to learn. Extrinsic
motivation refers to the performance of an activity to attain some separable outcome in contrast
with intrinsic motivation, which means to perform an activity for the inherent satisfaction of the
activity itself (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Although extrinsic motivation always plays a role in performing
one’s task, in the context of working place and time independent intrinsic motivation is seen as more
important to enhance this phenomenon. Combining this with the fact that being agile means that
organizations should be able to make decisions quickly, empowering of employees can be an
antecedent of agility. Making decisions quickly as an organization is easier when an organization is
more flat structured and the decision rights are established lower within the hierarchical pyramid.
Besides empowerment, a supervisor is no longer able to physically observe employees due to
the greater physical distance between supervisor and employee. When supervisors are used to this
type of control, they need to change their management style in order to successfully contribute to an
agile organization. A less costly and more efficient solution in many ways is committing to a trust
based requisite within the organization. In this context, trust is essential to get the work done. Thus,
instead of managing on ‘input’, a supervisor in the agile firm should focus more on output and thus
on trust.
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Agile organizations are able to face the changes in their industry and react quicker on those
changes and/or opportunities. In order to respond quickly to the identified changes in the external
environment, the internal environment of the organization must be able to respond to this. Trust and
empowerment are indicated as drivers for this agile organization. It seems to be logical that being
agile leads to a higher performance. Hence, the following research question is formulated:
Do trust and empowerment influence the agility of an organization and how does agility in
turn influence the productivity?
To investigate the main question above, some knowledge about agility must be gained at
first to see what agility exactly is and what research is done before. The same applies to the terms
trust, empowerment, and productivity. This will be described in chapter 1, the literature review.
Next, the literature will also provide outcomes of earlier research. Argumentation based on
the literature and outcomes of earlier research will be explained in chapter 2.
Chapter 3 contains the methodology section of this research. Here will be discussed how the
research is done: what sample is used, how the data is collected, what methods are used, and how
the conceptual model is measured. The validity and reliability tests are displayed in this chapter as
well.
The results of the surveys will be discussed in chapter 4. First, a preliminary analysis, second
descriptions and a small analysis of the sample on individual level is done followed by descriptions
and a small analysis of the sample on organizational level. Finally, regression analyses are done to
test the aggregate model.
Chapter 5 contains the discussion of the results. Besides the discussion, theoretical and
practical implications will be given. Also the limitations of this research are discussed and some
suggestions for future research are provided.
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1. LITERATURE
This chapter will position the study in the literature and give an overview of what research
already has been done, regarding the main variables mentioned in the introduction. First, the
variable agility will be discussed to gain a better understanding of this unknown concept. Second,
empowerment is outlined. Third, the variable trust is described. Finally, the dependent variable
performance is described.
1.1.
AGILITY
Agility is more than just flexibility or adaptability. According to Goldman, Nagel, & Preiss
(1995) and Sherehiy, Karwowski, & Layer (2007), it comprises the enrichment of the customer,
cooperation to enhance competiveness, leveraging the impact of people and information, and
organizing to master changes through flexible organization structures. Enrichment of the customer
does not mean delivering products, but focusing on (product) solutions. Internally, cooperation
means working together, but this could be extended by usage of all external sources to enhance
competitive advantages. In the knowledge economy, people, skills, and experience are the main
differentiators for competiveness and thus according to Goldman, Nagel, & Preiss (1995) people and
information can also possitively influence an agile organization. The last sub element of agility is that
an organization must have a flexible structure to master changes.
The degree of flexibility depends on three elements: the predictability of an event, the rate
of change, and the predetermined response (Oosterhout, 2010). Flexibility is defined by Volberda &
Rutges (1999) as the degree in which an organization has (potential) managerial capabilities, and also
the speed at which these capabilities can be activated to increase this managerial capacity and
controllability to adjust its internal environment to respond to changes in the external environment
(Reed & Blunsdon, 1998; Volberda & Rutges, 1999). As Oosterhout (2010) argues as well: being able
to act quickly to unpredictable changes and uncertainty, requires a new and extended level of
flexibility, which could be referred to as agility. Agility can be seen as the extension of the concept of
strategic flexibility (Overby, Bharadwaj, & Sambamurthy, 2005), one of the three dimensions of
flexibility. More general, one can refer to agility as a concept that incorporates the ideas of flexibility,
balance, adaptability, and coordination under one umbrella (Tsourveloudi & Valavanis 2002).
1.1.1. Definition
Agility is a concept which has traditionally been used in the manufacturing industry. Since the
beginning of the twenty-first century, agility is also used in the business industry. In terms of the
three dimensions of Volberda (1997), operational, structural, and strategic flexibility: agility requires
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a more creative and innovative response to unpredictable events, and high rates of change
compared to flexibility. Because agility includes the ability to radically and innovatively change
organizational processes as a response to an external change. According to Oosterhout (2010) being
agile means being able to swiftly change businesses and business processes beyond the normal level
of flexibility to effectively manage highly uncertain and unexpected but potentially consequential
internal and external events, based on the capabilities to sense, respond, and learn (page 17).
Looking to it in a more practical manner, what is an internal or external event that would call
for agility instead of flexibility? Oosterhout (2010) has categorized the events in seven categories, a
few examples of those categories are: business network events (such as takeovers by competitors,
partnerships and collaboration between competitors), competitive environment events (such as
responsiveness of competitors to change, cost pressure), and customer needs events (such as
fundamental shifts in taste of customers, demand for customized products).
1.1.2. Three types of Agility
Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover (2003) describe three types of agility that are based on
three interrelated capabilities; customer agility, partnering agility, and operational agility.
Customer agility means the co-opting of customers in the innovation process of an
organization. By involving customers in the process of thinking, creating, and producing, the
demands of the customers will be better aligned with the strategy of the firm. To strengthen this,
Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover (2003) argue that the involvement of customers is valuable for
three reasons: being a source of creative ideas, co-creator in the development and design process for
products/services, and user in testing products/services or helping other users to learn about the
products/services.
Partnering agility is the ability of an agile firm to leverage the assets, knowledge, and
competences of their suppliers, distributors, contract manufacturers, and logistic providers through
diverse forms of commitment. Through a partnership with a supplier or contract manufacturer for
instance, a firm could explore opportunities for innovation in the supply chain.
Operational agility reflects the ability to accomplish speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency in
the daily processes. This third form of agility ensures that an organization can rapidly redesign the
existing processes in responding to changes in the external environment (i.e. the industry where an
organization is active in).
In addition to these three types of agility, three dimensions of capabilities are identified by
Oosterhout (2010). Sensing, responding, and learning are the three dimensions, which can be applied
to each form of agility.
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1.1.3. Three dimensions of capabilities of agility
As mentioned by Teece, Pisano, & Shuen (1997) an organization within a turbulent
environment needs to show capabilities of the Dynamic Capabilities Perspective (DCP) in order to
achieve congruence with the changing environment. Those capabilities are called dynamic because
the organization must integrate, build, and reconfigure the capabilities continually to respond to the
rapidly changing environment. Oosterhout (2010) adapted three categories of dynamic capabilities
by Dove (2001): sensing, responding, and learning capabilities.
As noted in many conferences (i.e. TEDxMaastricht conference of 2012), listening to and
observing your customers can provide you with very useful information. This is in line with the
sensing capability, which can be defined as the ability of an organization to gather usable data,
transform this into information, interpret and analyze the urgency, causes and impact, and as such,
anticipate or detect opportunities and threats in the business environment (Oosterhout, 2010).
Moreover, responding is characterized by the ability to collaborate with customers and
partners in the business network and to rapidly (re)configure combinations of capabilities to easily
shape innovative moves. Being agile expands the options of an organization to respond when an
unpredictable event happens. In this context it means that agility requires firms to re-engineer or
modularize their processes and systems in order to add something on top of the existing variety, or
to quickly (dis)connect to other partners (Oosterhout, 2010).
The last dynamic capability is learning. There are two concepts named in literature in
accordance with this concept: organizational learning and knowledge management. Organizational
learning means that people constantly learn from what they did and how to expand their capacity to
gain new knowledge, while knowledge management comprises how to handle and keep the
knowledge that is acquired in a certain way (Oosterhout, 2010). This can be done by codification in IT
systems for instance. Both knowledge concepts agree that knowledge is an extremely important
requisite for agile organizations. According to Locke (1999) a competitive advantage of a firm can be
obtained by constantly discovering new knowledge and communicating this knowledge by
codification and later utilize this acquired knowledge.
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1.2.
EMPOWERMENT
Since 1980, empowerment is a widely described concept in the human resource literature.
The concept of empowerment got more complicated over the years. Conger & Kanungo (1988) took
an important step by defining empowerment not only in terms of delegation of decisions from higher
management to lower levels and access to information and sources, but they started to define it in
terms of motivational processes. Those motivational processes show the workers’ effortperformance expectancies. By looking at the literature more, it indeed, empowerment is not only be
based on empowerment of work practices (Spreitzer, 1995), but empowerment is based on the
psychological level as well (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990).
1.2.1. Definition
In literature, a distinction between the two types of empowerment is made: structural
empowerment (Laschinger, 2004), also referred to as situational empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995;
Thomas & Velthouse, 1990), and psychological empowerment. Structural empowerment is limited to
the workplace conditions; it depends on the perceived actual conditions of empowerment within the
workplace. Structural empowerment is mainly about the empowering of management/work
practices, delegation of decision rights from higher to lower levels and giving them/employees access
to needed information or diverse resources to accomplish tasks autonomously. The second type,
psychological empowerment, is more employee-focused. Psychological empowerment, which is
intrinsically focused, is the reaction of employees to structural empowering conditions. Therefore,
this type of empowerment is referred to as increased intrinsic task motivation, reproduced in a set of
four dimensions which reflects the individual’s orientation to his or her work role. The distinction is
made in the following four components of empowerment: meaning, competence, selfdetermination, and impact (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990; Spreitzer, 1995). One can define
psychological empowerment as the intrinsic motivation manifested in meaning, competence, selfdetermination, and impact, in which an employee feels able to shape his role in work and context
(Spreitzer G. M., 1995). This definition based on Spreitzer (1995) will be used in this research.
1.2.2. Four dimensions of Empowerment
As described above, Thomas & Velthouse (1990) conceptualize psychological empowerment
into four dimensions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. All cognitions are
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mentioned below to provide a more detailed overview. Measurement from Spreitzer (1995) confirms
that these four dimensions contribute to an overall construct of empowerment.
Empowerment meaning is the fit between the needs of one’s work and one’s values, beliefs,
and behaviors (Spreitzer, Kizilos, & Nason, 1997; Brief & Nord, 1990). An employee should get
energized about work, because if one does not feel enthusiastic about the job (i.e. if work activity
conflicts with their value system), an employee will not feel empowered (Thomas & Velthouse,
1990). Literature shows that no direct relationship is found between meaning and productivity
(Spreitzer, Kizilos, & Nason, 1997), while a positive relationship is found between meaning and job
satisfaction (Spreitzer, Kizilos, & Nason, 1997; Hackman & Oldham, 1980; Bass, 1985; Bennis &
Nanus, 1985).
Empowerment competence, often referred to as self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977), is an
individual’s belief in his capability to perform a set of tasks or activities with his skills, when he or she
tries (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990). Although limited research is done on the relationship between
empowerment competence and performance, Spreitzer, Kizilos, & Nason (1997) found a positive
relationship between competence and productivity. On top of that, looking at self-efficacy, Locke
(1991) argues that self-efficacy beliefs have a powerful direct effect on task performance. Multiple
empirical studies reviewed by Gist & Mitchell (1992), report a positive relationship between selfefficacy and a variety of work-related performance measures, such as sales and research productivity
and adaptability. However differences between self-efficacy and empowerment competence exist,
those differences are not fundamental, and thus empowerment competence is seen as positive
influencing productivity.
Empowerment self-determination is the degree to which employees experience freedom,
independence, and discretion within the organization (Hackman, 1987; Susman, 1976). Selfdetermination is referred to as the ability of an individual to have a choice to regulate actions by
their self (Deci, Connell, & Ryan, 1989). It is about enabling an employee, not only about delegating
tasks to the employee. By enabling, which implies creating conditions to heighten intrinsic motivation
through development of personal efficacy, an employee feels intrinsically motivated (Conger &
Kanungo, 1988). While empowerment competence is more about personal mastery, empowerment
self-determination sticks more to the independency to decide on the initiation and/or continuation
of work process. According to Deci & Ryan (1985) this kind of perceived choice produces greater
flexibility, creativity, initiative, and self-regulation. And thus, expected is that empowerment selfdetermination influences productivity.
Empowerment impact is the degree to which one is able to influence administrative,
operating, or strategic outcomes at work to make a difference (Ashfort, 1989). Employees feel more
capable to shape their work and work environment, and as a result they feel empowered.
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1.3.
TRUST
As mentioned in the introduction, within the new worlds of work, which is a method for
organizations to be agile, trust is an important prerequisite between a supervisor and an employee.
When the sense of physical control is reduced, trust is a substitute to efficiently manage the work
process. Trust serves as a guide within work-relationships; it will take care of openness, investment,
and spontaneity of the interactions between employees (Colquitt & Salam, 2009). On top of that,
from a cognitive perspective, employees often have more complete knowledge and in depth
information about their tasks than their managers have. Moreover, they are in a better position to
plan and schedule their work, to identify possible obstacles, and try to resolve them to achieve better
performance (Cooke, 1994). Keeping those two arguments of trust in mind, trust can contribute to
achieve the outcome, where both the employee and the supervisor are looking for (i.e. higher
performance).
1.3.1. Definition
Trust is often discussed in literature and in various disciplines such as psychologics,
management, economics, and sociologics (Colquitt & Salam, 2009). This means that a lot is known
about trust as a concept. But, this also creates confusion about what should be considered as
dimensions of trust. Besides, trust is also depending on the context (Blomqvist & Kirsimarja, 1997)
and thus is argued to be domain specific (Zand, 1972). One could trust one other (i.e. a trustee) for
his experience and competence in for instance, the technical area, but that does not mean that one
would trust this person on his social skills as well. Besides the fact that trust is domain specific, it is
also depending on the confidence one has in the words, actions, and good intensions of the other
(Cook & Wall, 1980). Thus, one should be willing to be vulnerable to the trustee, judging on the good
intensions and on the experience one has in a specific area.
Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman (1995) formulated the following definition, which include exactly
the important elements from the literature: the willingness of a trustor to be vulnerable to the
actions of a trustee based on positive expectations about the trustee’s characteristics, behaviors, and
intentions (Page 712). This definition is used in this thesis.
1.3.2. Characteristics of trust
Approaching trust as relations between divers’ persons in the work environment, the focus in
this study is on interpersonal trust. Interpersonal trust is also referred to as intra-organizational trust,
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which means that trust within organizations is considered. Two other strands dealing with trust are:
trust between organizations (i.e. inter-organizational trust) and trust between organizations and
their customers (i.e. for marketing concern) (Dietz & Den Hartog, 2006). Although trust between
organizations and trust between organizations and their customers can also be very important for
influencing agility, by considering the internal environment of an organization the strand of intraorganizational trust is the one that fits the best. The intra-organizational relationships of trust cover
the relations on and throughout divers’ levels of the organization. (Cooke, 1980; Dietz & Den Hartog,
2006; Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995).
According to the definition of trust mentioned above, characteristics of a trustee are one of
the areas in the literature of which a lot of contrasting standpoints exist. This is strengthened by the
fact that many scholars approach trust as a multi-dimensional scale. However, many scales can be
assigned to three main characteristics of trustworthiness. Trustworthiness as a personal trait of a
trustee is mainly characterized by ability, benevolence, and integrity (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman,
1995; Dietz & Den Hartog, 2006).
First, the ability of an individual comprises the skills, competencies, and characteristics of
this individual to have an influence in a specific domain. Second, benevolence is seen, in its
construct, as a positive orientation of the trustee towards the trustor. The trustee is believed to do
something good to the trustor, even though in such a case the trustee is in such a case not required
to help the trustor, the one who trusts the other. As a third characteristic, perceived integrity is the
acceptance of the trustor on some of the principles and intensions of his trustee. One could say that
the integrity solely depends on the mutual acceptance of those principles. However, the integrity of
those principles can be judged by a third party based on experiences in the past and the extent to
what those actions are congruent with the words of the trustee.
These three characteristics are important characteristics to have for a trustworthy person.
More useful in practice is how these characteristics contribute to a more agile organization. Even
though a distinction can be made based on these characteristics of a trustee (Cook & Wall, 1980) and
the impact on agility, for this research more interesting to know is what inter-personal relations
contribute to agility. The characteristics ability, benevolence, and integrity are interwoven in each of
the internal relations. The internal relations can be divided in several categories (Dietz & Den Hartog,
2006). Trustful inter-personal relationships can arise between the employee(s) and their direct
manager(s) (Tzafrir & Dolan, 2004; Spreitzer & Mishra, 1999; Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995), and
between colleagues (McAllister, 1995). Trust between employees and their manager can occur in two
ways, namely the trust one places in management or the supervisor and the trust perceived from
management or the supervisor. For this study trust in management, trust from management, and
trust in colleagues are measured.
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1.4.
PERFORMANCE
An increase in organizational performance is one of the most used outcomes for companies
to strive for. Although performance is a broad term, in day to day language and in some articles you
may hear that ‘increase of organizational performance’ is what companies want to achieve. To clarify
the term performance, there are basically three dimensions: people, planet, and profit. Regarding
people as a performance measurement, one should think of outcomes such as flexibility, job
satisfaction, and work-life balance (Hill, Ferris, & Martinson, 2003). All outcomes based on the wellbeing of employees can also referred to as the soft side of performance outcomes. Planet focusses
on sustainable travelling and behavior, which has become a hot topic over the last years. Finally,
profit is more aware of the hard side of performance measurement and sees productivity on the
individual level as an outcome. On organizational level of analysis, innovativeness, market share, and
overall performance are seen as measurements.
The latter dimension, profit, will be the focus for this thesis. Productivity will be the
performance indicator, it is defined by Richard et al. (2009) as a subjective measurement, because it
might be biased on the fact that the measure lacks a fixed reference point and it also includes human
feedback (Kahneman & Tversky, 2000; Richard et al., 2009). However, to value the outcomes of the
individuals, an overall performance indication is included in the survey on the organizational level to
compare the subjective measurement with. This makes it possible to check how great the
agreeableness is between measurements on the individual level and on the organizational level.
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2. CONCEPTUAL MODEL
In this chapter the conceptual model will be presented together with the hypotheses. But first, the
independent variables will be introduced. Next, the dependent variable will be pointed out and
finally, an overview of all hypotheses in a conceptual model will be given.
2.1.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
2.1.1.
The influence of empowerment on agility
As argued before, agility covers a few dimensions, such as adaptively, involvement of
different parties, flexibility, and responding quickly and adequately. As a construct, agility is quite
new regarding human resource management, but it has been a prevailing topic for academic
research for many years. Investigated is for instance how an organization can be and stay successful
in the unpredictable, dynamic, and constantly changing environment where organizations are
operating in now (Sherehiy, Karwowski, & Layer, 2007). A solution to face this could be through being
an agile organization (Sherehiy, Karwowski, & Layer, 2007). However agility was not a widely used
concept in the business industry for a long time, it is more known and used today according to the
association Agile Consortium Nederland. Being agile as an organization, the organization is
depending on the people and skills within that organization. As mentioned in paragraph 1.1 skills,
experience, and people are of high value in the current economy. It was believed that agility could be
achieved by just introducing advanced technologies; however it is argued that today’s economy is
more depending on people. Sherehiy, Karwowski, & Layer (2007) stated that agility requires an agile
workforce. Additionally, Breu et al. (2002) determined initial indicators of an agile workforce;
effectiveness of cooperation, speed of developing new skills, responsiveness to changing customer
needs, but employee empowerment is indicated as an initial indicator for independent decision
making. Breu et al. thus argue that an agile workforce is driven by among others employee
empowerment. Moreover, the cultural dimensions of ‘empowerment’ are also seen as key in
decision making to make organizations truly agile (Goldman & Nagel, 1993; Kidd, 1994; Van Oyen et
al., 2001). Although empowerment is divided into four dimensions, Spreitzer (1995) argues and also
found evidence for is that all four dimensions contribute to an overall construct of empowerment.
Therefore, in this thesis empowerment will be interpreted as an overall construct. Because all
dimensions together make a complete concept (i.e. in terms of psychological empowerment: feeling)
of empowerment. Therefore, the following hypothesis is expected:
H1: Empowerment has a positive influence on the agility of an organization.
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2.1.2. The influence of trust on agility
While in literature the relationship between trust and agility is not mentioned, by stepping
back to strategic flexibility, more can be found. Oosterhout (2010) argues that agility could be seen
as the extension of the strategic flexibility construct. Thus the relationship between trust and
strategic flexibility is investigated according to the literature. Although strategic flexibility is surely
not the same as agility, it gives some direction regarding the relationship of trust and agility. Strategic
flexibility, as studied by Young-Ybarra & Wiersema (1999), is found to be strongly related with trust.
They divided the concept strategic flexibility into modification and exit, and since their definition of
modification (i.e. the ability of partners to adjust their behaviors or terms of the agreement to
changes in the environment or needs of partners) is closely related to the used definition of agility
here, it is assumed that a positive relationship between trust and agility could exist. To strengthen
this, Das & Elango (1995) stated in their article that employee’s trust is a significant factor for
impacting the effectiveness of strategic flexibility.
Taking into account the bigger picture, performance is chosen as the dependent variable, and
whereas agility is assumed to mediate the relationship between trust and performance, it could be
helpful to see how trust and performance are related. Costa (2003) found a small positive
relationship between trust and task performance, while Costa e Silva, Bradley, & Sousa (2012) found
a strong positive relationship between trust and performance in an international marketing concept
by asking partners. In an experimental environment, Klimosky & Karol (1976) proved that higher
levels of trust result in higher productivity, as a dimension of performance.
Wintrobe & Breton (1986) argue that an increase in trust throughout the organization does
not necessarily predict a positive effect on performance, because in their article is argued that the
effect of trust on performance is depending upon the distribution of trust. Expected is that vertical
trust relationships will have a stronger positive influence on performance than horizontal
relationships have. Spreitzer & Mishra (1999), for instance, found that trust in employees influences
the productivity of the employees.
Taken into account that trust influences strategic flexibility positively, and vertical
relationships of trust have a stronger influence on the dependent variable, expected is the following
relationship:
H2A: Trust from management has a positive influence on the agility of an organization.
In case trust is lacking, it could lead to increased costs, lower productivity (Wilson et al., 2005;
McAllistar, 1995), and inefficient ways of working. Agile organizations, in contrast, require excellent
and rapid processes in order to respond quickly to the external environment. Therefore, lower levels
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
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of productivity reduce the agility of organizations. Although not a lot is written in literature about
trust in relation with agility, trust seems to be vital for development of extended enterprise networks
and partnering agility (Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover, 2003). Moreover, operational agility
requires trustful willingness to share strategic information (Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover,
2003). Partners who trust each other generate larger profits, are more adaptable, and serve their
customers better (Kumar, 1996). By taking this into account and the aforementioned effects of trust
on strategic flexibility, assumed is that trust in management and trust in colleagues will have a
positive effect on agility as well. Therefore, the following hypotheses are formulated:
H2B: Trust in management has a positive influence on the agility of an organization.
H2C: Trust in colleagues has a positive influence on the agility of an organization.
2.2.
DEPENDENT VARIABLES
2.2.1. Agility influences performance
Agility is not a goal in itself, but the necessity to maintain the competitiveness in the
uncertainty of the market (Jackson and Johansson, 2003). Logically, an agile organization should stay
competitive (Sherehiy, Karwowski, & Layer, 2007) and improve its performance. What could be done
by gathering data, to sense opportunities and threats, to learn from new knowledge, and respond to
(un)predictable events in the internal and external environment? Theoretical evidence is generated
from Tallon & Pinsonneault (2011) that the more agile an organization is, the higher the performance
of the firm is. In particular, in markets where a rapid change rate exists. Being agile namely means
that a firm responds rapidly to change and gives the firm the opportunity to engage in other actions
to control market risk and uncertainty (Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover, 2003). When
organizations are able to respond quickly, expand into new markets, and increase the innovation
rate, they could reduce costs and experience higher profit (Tallon & Pinsonneault, 2011). Moreover,
Locke (1999) stated that new knowledge could lead to a competitive advantage; therefore one could
say that agility, which is about involving customers and partners and thus gaining new knowledge,
increases productivity. Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated:
H3A: The agility of an organization has a positive influence on the performance of an
organization.
Depending on the industry where an organization is operating in, organizations need to be
highly agile or less agile. The relationship between agility and organizational performance therefore,
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
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could be influenced by the turbulence of the environment, or also referred to as industry. Tallon &
Pinsonneault (2011) confirm that indeed in a volatile environment the gain in performance is higher,
but even in a stable environment agility influences performance. Assumed is that a higher level of
environmental turbulence will strengthen the relationship between agility and organizational
performance. Therefore, the following hypothesis is assumed:
H3B: The relationship between agility and organizational performance is moderated by the
environmental turbulence.
2.3.
OVERVIEW CONCEPTUAL MODELS
The variables empowerment, trust in management, trust from management, trust in
colleagues, and productivity are measured on the individual level of analysis. Besides, the variables
agility, environmental turbulence, and performance are measured on the organizational level of
analysis. For each level of analysis, a conceptual model is given with the expected relationships.
Then, an aggregate and final conceptual model is given with the expected relationships and
corresponding hypotheses. This will be further explained in the methodology section.
For the constructs measured on the individual level of analysis, the following conceptual
model is made. Empowerment could be identified on the individual level and on team level
(Spreitzer, 1995). By conceptualizing empowerment as self-efficacy (Conger & Kanungo, 1988),
empowerment is linked to productivity. More recently, it is found that empowerment influences
perceived work productivity (Koberg, Boss, Senjem, & Goodman, 1999). According to the literature,
assumed is that empowerment positively influences productivity, and also that trust has a positive
influence on productivity.
Empowerment
Trust from management
Productivity
Trust in management
Trust in colleagues
Figure 2.1. Overview of the constructs on the individual level of analysis
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On the organizational level of analysis the constructs agility, performance and environmental
turbulence are measured. A positive relationship between agility and performance is assumed and
expected is that this relationship is strengthened by environmental turbulence. Figure 2.2. gives a
visual overview of the model on the organizational level.
Environmental
turbulence
H3B
H3a
Performance
Agility
Figure 2.2. Conceptual model of the organizational level of analysis
To actually find out if empowerment and trust are truly antecedents of agility and if agility
impacts performance as well, an aggregate conceptual model is formed. Below in figure 2.3. the
visual overview of this model can be found. In this model the hypotheses mentioned before are
illustrated.
Environmental
turbulence
H1
Empowerment
H3B
H2A
Agility
H3A
Performance
Trust from management
H2B
Trust in management
H2C
Trust in colleagues
Figure 2.3. Aggregate conceptual model
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3. METHODOLOGY
This chapter will describe the applied method of research. In the first paragraph the sample is
described. Thereafter, the data is collected. In the third paragraph the measurements of the
constructs will be discussed. In the last paragraph a validity and a reliability test of the constructs and
their items are executed and explained.
3.1.
SAMPLE
This research was conducted in order for PMtD. PMtD is a consultancy organization that
provides various types of services to companies. Those services are in line with their company profile
and statement: ‘People Make the Difference’. That is also the reason for their great interest in people
within organizations, and not only for technology on which they are focusing as well. For many years
now the services include creating online platforms to stimulate interaction with colleagues while
working from different locations, and developing ways to implement new ways of working.
The sample consists of business relations of PMtD, which is a variety of organizations in all
aspects of the Dutch economy. In total 28 organizations filled in the complete survey. Organizations
that participated in this research are: BAM, FloraHolland, Bureau Jeugdzorg, T-Systems, Persgroep,
Reinier De Graaf Gasthuis, Flynth, Icare, Disgover, Joulz, Huisman Logistics, Kluwer, Essent,
HVOQuerido, Mangrove, LeaseplanBank, Ministerie van Financien, KING, Universiteit Utrecht, ICTU,
Certhon, Provincie Brabant, ASML, Diakonessehuis, Christelijk Lyceum Delft, UMC, HDI-Gerling, and
ISDC. Those organizations operate in divers industries, such as financial service industry, health care
industry, government, and knowledge organizations.
3.2.
DATA COLLECTION
This thesis is based on the investigation of the effects of trust and empowerment on the
agility of an organization, and the effects of agility on performance. As mentioned in chapter 2, the
conceptual model consists of two levels of analysis. The variables trust in management, trust from
management, trust in colleagues, empowerment, and productivity are measured on individual level
to find out if employees feel empowered and trusted in their organization. Besides, agility,
performance, and environmental turbulence are measured on the organizational level.
Therefore, for each level a survey is conducted to measure on the one hand the variables
empowerment, trust, and productivity and on the other hand agility, environmental turbulence, and
performance. Within each organization a contact person was asked to select at least 5 respondents
to fill in the survey on the individual level. The respondents are in the range of the control of the
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persons in management positions. For the second survey, the contact person selected two persons
(informants) who behold a management position, are involved in the strategic decision making of the
organization, and have knowledge of trends and developments outside their organization. The survey
that measures on the individual level can be found in appendix A and the survey that measures on
the organizational level can be found in appendix B.
An online survey was the preferred data collection method, since the respondents and
informants were distributed over multiple organizations. Moreover, an electronically survey makes
processing the results easier: respondents have fixed answers, respondents cannot skip questions,
the data is easier to put in SPSS. Responding to the online survey was on a voluntary basis. Despite,
the participants were made aware of the importance of their response. Even though the researcher
was able to trace back individual results based on the personalized link in the survey tool, the data
was treated confidentially. The confidential statement was assured to the respondents in the
introduction text of the surveys.
In order to analyze the effect of trust and empowerment on agility, preferably all constructs
should be measured on the same level of analysis. In order to analyse the effects of trust and
empowerment on agility, the outcomes of the survey on the individual level should be aggregated to
the organizational level. Not the individual level has become the unit of analysis, but the
organizational level. Therefore, the outcomes of each respondent from one organization should be
merged to create one outcome on organizational level. Before the outcomes can be merged, the
intra-class correlation Rwgj is calculated. This tests whether there is consensus in the outcomes
within the same organization. The Rwgj is calculated for each variable. Checked is whether the
outcomes of an organization show repeatedly low values in this analysis or not. All variables show
values above .90 as can be seen in appendix D. There are no organizations that show repeatedly
outcomes below .80. Thus, the outcomes of the individuals per company can be merged and
aggregated into one outcome per company on the organizational level. By aggregating the variables
to a higher level of analysis, the results should be treated and interpreted with caution.
3.3.
MEASUREMENTS
To validate the conceptual model, some questions of the New World of Works
research project are used for the first survey (Baalen, et al., 2009). Those questions are
validated by using existing and tested scales. For this thesis, the following dimensions of
work were taken from the New World of Work questionnaire: empowerment meaning,
empowerment impact, empowerment competence, empowerment self-determination, trust
in management, trust from management, trust in colleagues, and some work characteristics
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related questions. The New World of Work questionnaire has been pre-tested by a sample of 350
people with at least a bachelor or master’s degree. All questions are randomized per work
dimension, since this can increase the internal consistency. The majority of items in the New World
of Work questionnaire are measured using a 5-point Likert scale, from strongly disagree to strongly
agree. The questions used for this thesis can be found in Appendix A.
As mentioned before, a second questionnaire is created to measure the variables on
organizational level. The reason for having this second questionnaire is that the construct agility can
only be measured on the organizational level. For this questionnaire the variables: agility,
environmental turbulence, and performance are used. The variable performance is a subjective
indication of the performance of an organization compared to their competitors. The questions of
this second questionnaire can be found in Appendix B.
3.3.1. Trust
The dimensions of trust are measured using the interpersonal scale of trust at work of Cook
and Wall (1980). Since the theoretical model requires measuring trust within an organization, this
scale is the most appropriate for this thesis. Therefore, Trust in management, trust from
management, and trust in colleagues are measured, using four questions per dimension. It is one of
the first scales to measure interpersonal trust and it is still widely used. And extensively tested. Cook
and Wall (1980) developed a subscale for trust, in which faith in intentions of management is chosen
to measure trust in management. To measure trust in colleagues, the subscale is rephrased to focus
on employees instead of management. All questions about trust are measured on a five-point Likert
scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. An overview of all questions can be found in appendix
A. The construct of trust in management and trust in colleagues respectively have a Cronbach’s alpha
of .84 and .80, indicating good internal consistency.
3.3.2. Empowerment
Empowerment is measured using four dimensions of psychological empowerment, namely
meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. Those four dimensions use the
multidimensional measure method of Spreitzer (1995). This method is widely used throughout the
literature (Spreitzer et al. 1997; Siegall and Gardner 2000; Drake et al. 2007; Spreitzer 1996). The
construct validity has also been demonstrated in many independent studies involving different
organizations (Spreitzer 1995; Kraimer et al. 1999; Liden et al. 2000). Each of the dimensions is
measured using three questions on a five-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
The following Cronbach’s alpha are found for empowerment: Empowerment meaning (.86),
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
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empowerment
competence
(.73),
empowerment
self-determination
(.84),
and
empowerment impact (.90). Empowerment as an entire construct is internally consistent as
well, indicated by a Cronbach’s alpha of .79.
3.3.3. Agility
Agility is a relatively new construct in business literature. The validated scale used in
the questionnaire that measured on organizational level originated from Tallon &
Pinsonneault (2011). The questionnaire of agility exists of eight questions. The questions are
all measured on a seven-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The
reliability of agility is confirmed by a Cronbach’s alpha of .88.
3.3.4. Environmental turbulence
The moderating variable environmental turbulence is measured using three dimensions:
technological turbulence, market turbulence, and competitive intensity. All are measured on a sevenpoint Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree and are taken from Auh and Menguc
(2005). Turbulence of technology consists of three questions, market turbulence and intensity of
competitors consist of four questions. The outcomes of environmental turbulence as an entire
construct shows a Cronbach’s alpha of .76, while the internal consistency of turbulence of technology
is .69, intensity of competitors is .85, and turbulence of market is .55.
3.3.5. Productivity (i.e. performance*)
To measure productivity on individual level, the questionnaire of Staples, Hulland, & Higgins
(1999) and Ramirez & Nembhard (2004) is used. The construct exists of eight questions and
respondents are asked to value the questions on a five-point Likert scale. The Cronbach’s alpha
of productivity is .84.
3.3.6. Organizational performance
For measuring performance on the organizational level the scale of Jaworski and
Kohli (1993) is used. The performance is measured by asking how the performance of the
organization or business unit was. But also by asking how the performance of the
organization was compared to competitors.
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3.4.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
Before the data will be analyzed, it must be confirmed that the constructs are valid and reliable. To
identify the validity of a construct, a factor analysis is conducted. This is discussed in the first sub
paragraph. Next, the reliability test will be discussed. The Cronbach’s alpha is an indicator for the
reliability of a construct; those values can be found in the paragraph before in the text of each
variable.
3.4.1. Validity – factor analysis
In order to draw conclusions from the data, a few requirements should be met (Meulen, 2010). The
first requirement concerns a minimum sample size of five to ten times the numbers of constructs
(Hair et al., 2006) in order to conduct a regression analysis. Second, a significant result for Bartlett’s
test of sphericity is needed. Third, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy
needs to be at the very least exceeding .60. KMO indicates the correlations between pairs of
variables which can be explained by other variables.
The first requirement is met, as the total sample within the survey on the individual level
consists of 132 respondents and this survey is built around five constructs. Looking at the survey on
the organizational level, the sample consists of 28 organizations and this survey has three constructs.
Conclude could be that both samples are good enough to continue with the factor analysis. The
second and third requirements are met as well: Bartlett’s test of sphericity is proven significant for
both the survey on the individual and the organizational level ( =2110.14, p<.01;  = 466.16,
p<.01), the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value is .76 and .74 for respectively the individual and organizational
survey. Thus, the result of the three requirements claims that a factor analysis is allowed.
In appendix C an overview of the factor analysis wherein both the items of the variables on
individual and organizational level can be found. Values between .50 and .70 are mediocre, values
between .70 and .80 are good, values between .80 and .90 are great and values above .90 are superb
(Hutcheson and Sofroniou, 1999). According to the factor analysis on the individual level, the scales
of empowerment, trust in management, trust from management, trust in colleagues, and
productivity have been reviewed. Empowerment is divided in four constructs, based on the
theoretical background. The analysis shows that indeed four dimensions are identified. The values of
empowerment impact, empowerment self-determination, and empowerment meaning all score over
.80. One item of empowerment competence is below .70 (I am self-assured in respect of my
capabilities to carry out my work, .66), which is mediocre according to the categories of Hutcheson
and Sofroniou (1999). The theory applies this construct in the same composition as is done here,
therefore this construct will be used as it is described in the literature section, it will be treated with
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Inge van Meurs
caution though. Trust consists of three constructs in the literature and represents three constructs in
the factor analysis as well. Outcomes of trust in management shows two items above .70 and two
items above .80, and therefore indicated as good. Outcomes of trust from management identifies
one item above .70 and three items above .80, and thus is indicated as good as well. Outcomes of
trust in colleagues, additionally, shows three items above .80, and one item above .60 (My colleagues
are sincere in their aims to accommodate the opinions of the managers, .64). This is according to the
categories of Hutcheson and Sofroniou (1999) mediocre. Although this item is weaker in the trust in
colleagues construct, it will be used as it is described before, although treated with caution.
According to the survey on the organizational level, the scales of agility, environmental
turbulence and performance are reviewed. To start with agility, this construct consists of eight items
according to the scale of Tallon and Pinsonneault (2011); however the factor analysis shows a
construct comprising seven items. However, even though the outcomes of three items show a value
between .60 and .70 and therefore are weaker compared to the others, which are above .80, agility is
a broad definition and all seven items form one construct. Nonetheless, item five (How easily and
quickly an organization is able to expand to new regional or internationals markets) will be left out,
because it does not correlate with the other items of agility. A possible explanation is that the
question is not applicable for each firm.
The construct environmental turbulence is divided into three constructs, namely:
competitors turbulence, market turbulence, and technology turbulence. Although competitors
turbulence comprises one component with values above .70, market turbulence and technology
turbulence are not seen as two separate components. Two items of market turbulence (>.70 and
>.80) and two items of technology turbulence (>.60) seem to correlate into one component. One
item of market turbulence has a value of .21 and is therefore too weak to keep in the component,
thus it will be left out. The other items of both constructs correlate with none of the turbulence
components and are therefore left out as well. Finally, performance is not taken into the factor
analysis because it is not a multi-dimensional scale.
3.4.2. Reliability
A reliability test is executed to measure the internal consistency of the questions that form a
variable. This is done by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the constructs. In paragraph
3.3. the Cronbach’s alpha is mentioned for each construct. In appendix D a table can be found with
all Cronbach’s alpha for each construct. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient should be at least .60 to be
reliable (Hair et al., 2006), in general a minimum value of .70 is considered to be acceptable (George
and Mallery, 2006).
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Inge van Meurs
The outcomes of the constructs empowerment, trust in management, trust in colleagues,
trust from management, and productivity show a high Cronbach’s alpha and will not be discussed
further. The constructs agility and environmental turbulence will be discussed shortly. There can be
concluded that almost all the outcomes of the items are above .70 and thus reliable. Agility has a
Cronbach’s alpha of .88, by deleting item 5 the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient improves to a .89. This
item of agility is discussed in the validity section as well and therefore will be deleted. The Cronbach’s
alpha of the dimensions of the environmental turbulence construct are not surprising. Not all
dimensions show a Cronbach’s alpha above .70, but only intensity of competitors is seen as one
construct and results in a Cronbach’s alpha of .85. Therefore, only this dimension will be used to
represent environmental turbulence.
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4. RESULTS
In this chapter at first a preliminary analysis will be done. In this analysis the correlation table is
shown. In the second paragraph, some descriptives of the sample measured on the individual level
are displayed and also a small analysis, according to figure 2.1. In the third paragraph, some
descriptives of the sample measured on the organizational level of analysis are given, besides a small
analysis is conducted as well, according to figure 2.2. Next, the execution of the aggregated,
conceptual model will be described. This is done according to figure 2.3. Finally, an overview of the
hypotheses will be given together with the final model. Moreover, an extended model illustrates the
outcomes found by conducting the analysis.
4.1.
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS
A bivariate analysis is done by studying the correlations between the divers variables, which
shows the amount of correlation between the variables used in this matrix. The correlation matrix
can be found in table 4.1.
A remarkable correlation in the table is that the productivity of an employee measured on
the one hand and the performance of an organization measured on the other hand shows a high
correlation, which means that the productivity of employees is in line with the performance of the
organization. Both are indicators of performance and on top of that, individual productivity can
increase the overall performance of an organization. By looking at the correlation matrix, one can see
that both performance measurements highly correlate with each other. For this research, the
productivity measurement functions as the overall dependent variable, and is aggregated to the
organizational level as a performance measurement. The aggregated variable productivity is
displayed further in this thesis as performance*.
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Correlations
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
1. Empowerment Meaning
2. Empowerment
Competence
3. Empowerment Selfdetermination
4. Empowerment Impact
,239
,107
0,35****
,150
0,47***
0,31****
5. Empowerment
0,56*
0,69*
0,60*
0,80*
6. Trust in management
-,225
-,092
-,064
,238
,000
7. Trust in colleagues
,042
,007
,074
,264
,184
0,42***
8. Trust from management
-,020
,307
0,51**
0,41***
0,44***
-,037
9. Environmental turbulence
-,169
-,080
-,170
,047
-,113
,128
10. Agility
-,096
,145
,011
,067
,035
0,32****
0,34****
0,48***
,287
0,49**
0,60*
-,140
,077
-,222
,141
0,40***
,242
,166
11. Productivity
12. Performance
,056
,146
,154
,177
,093
,024
0,35****
0,50**
0,67*
,299
0,37****
0,52**
,058
,236
0,54**
Notes: *Correlation is significant on the .001-level (1-tailed); **correlation is significant on the .01-level (1-tailed); ***correlation is significant on the .05level (1-tailed); ****correlation is marginal significant on the .10-level (1-tailed)
Table 4.1. Correlation matrix
4.2.
INDIVIDUAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
The survey on the individual level was conducted among 131 employees of 28 companies.
The age of the people in the sample is between 21 and 61, with an average of 39. The division of
gender is more or less equal, 54% is male and 46% is female. 76% of the participant has a HBO
degree or higher. Of all the participants, 72% works 100% of their work time at the permanent office.
The survey measured the variables empowerment, trust, and productivity. A small analysis is
done on the influence of empowerment on productivity and also an analysis is done on the influence
of the dimensions of trust on productivity, according to figure 2.1. This means that trust in
management, trust from management, trust in colleagues, and empowerment are tested
simultaneously in a regression analysis. Expected is, according to the correlation matrix, that only
trust from management will give a significant effect on productivity. This is confirmed by the
regression analysis, which tells us that trust in management does not have a significant effect on
productivity (β=.05, t=.59, p>.10). The same counts for trust in colleagues, that also shows a nonsignificant effect on productivity (β=.06, t=.71, p>.10). Trust from management shows a significant
effect on productivity (β=.45, t=.60, p<.01). Moreover, empowerment as one construct is expected to
have a high impact on productivity, according to the correlation matrix in table 4.1. This is confirmed
by the regression analysis (β=.42, t=5.25, p<.01).
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
4.3.
ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
The survey on the organizational level was conducted among 52 persons in a management
position within the same 28 companies. Those informants were selected by the contact person which
PMtD has in each company. It was required that the informants are in a position in which they know
what the strategy of the company is and also have knowledge of the trends and developments in
their industry. The age of the people in the sample is between 27 and 58, with an average of 42. The
division of gender is less equal than in the survey on the individual level, 76% is male and 24% is
female. Besides, 90% of the participants have a HBO degree or higher.
The survey has measured the variables agility, environmental turbulence, and performance.
A small analysis is done with the variables on the organizational level of analysis, according to figure
2.2. This means that agility is tested on performance with the moderation of environmental
turbulence. The regression analysis shows that the impact of agility on performance is significant
(β=.34, t=2.42, p<.10). But the environmental turbulence does not have a significant influence on
performance (β=-.01, t=-.09, p>.10). However, also the performance compared to competitors is
measured. Surprisingly agility on the dependent variable gives not a significant effect (β=.21, t=.45,
p>.10). However, by adding the variable environmental turbulence, both agility and environmental
turbulence are significant predictors of performance (β=.34, t=2.24, p<.05 resp. β=-.33, t=-2.15,
p<.05). In the third model, the interaction effect is added (β=.41, t=2.62, p<.01), which shows a
significant effect as well. The model explains 25% of the performance on a significant level of 99%.
The stepwise regression model can be found in appendix E.
4.4.
AGGREGATE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
The multiple regression analysis is used to analyze how the dependent variable
performance* is influenced by the independent variables: trust in management, trust in colleagues,
trust from management, and empowerment, but also analyses the effect of the mediator agility as
described in the conceptual model, see figure 2.3. This paragraph does not only provide the direct
effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable, but also provides the impact of the
mediator agility and the moderator environmental turbulence on the model. The outcomes of the
analysis will support or not support the hypotheses stated in paragraph 2.3.
Before conducting a regression analysis, three things must be checked. At first, the variables
have to be centered. Secondly, the data has to be checked for outliers. Outliers are extreme values in
the data, which have to be picked out to get a deeper understanding. The dataset does not show
outliers, since all Z-scores are between -3.00 and 3.00. Finally, the data has to be checked for
collinearity and multi-collinearity. This is to make sure that there are no extreme correlations, so-
27
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
called collinearity, between the independent variables. Collinearity is a strong mutual dependence
between two variables in the model. In case of collinearity the separate contributions of two
independent variables cannot predict the dependent variable accurately. In the correlation matrix in
table 4.1, it is confirmed that there is no collinearity between the variables (generally a correlation of
.90 or higher). Besides collinearity, which can be identified by looking at the bivariate correlations,
one must also check for multi-collinearity (multivariate correlations). This can only be found by
examining tolerance values (Hair et al., 2006). Tolerance values need to be higher than .20 (Van
Dalen & De Leede, 2009), none of the regression models show tolerance values lower than .20 and
thus no multi-collinearity problem arises.
For this analysis there is chosen to follow the described path below, regarding mediation and
moderation, which is illustrated in figure 4.2. Mediation transmits the effect of an independent
variable on a dependent variable, this occurs when the relationship between two variables can be
explained by looking at a third variable. While moderation, in contrast with mediation, means an
interaction effect by which a relationship in fact will be stronger or weaker because of the
moderator. Thus, whereas moderator variables specify when certain effects will hold, mediators
specify how or why such effects occur.
The relationship of the independent variables empowerment, trust in management, trust
from management, and trust in colleagues and the dependent variable performance* is affected by
the mediating variable agility. As mentioned before, to test this model a certain path is followed
which is illustrated in figure 4.2. Firstly, path C is analysed to see whether the independent variable
has a direct effect on the dependent variable. Secondly, path A shows whether the independent
variable has a significant effect on the mediator. Thirdly, the mediator must significantly affect the
dependent variable. Lastly, the dependent variable C’ (i.e. path C’) are controlled for paths A and B,
the effects of the independent variable, there should be a less strong effect than is identified in path
C, which is partial mediation, or the relationship should be insignificant in order to have full
mediation.
Figure 4.2 Mediation model
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
As described in the method section, an aggregate model is made to merge the variables to
the same level of analysis, in order to answer the research question mentioned in the introduction.
4.4.1. Step 1 Regression model of independent variables on dependent variable
In the first step of the regression model, the direct effects of the independent variables
empowerment, trust in management, trust from management, and trust in colleagues are tested on
the dependent variable performance*. This step is illustrated in figure 4.2, which is referred to as
path C.
Step 1.1 Regression model of empowerment on performance*
The effect of empowerment as independent variable on performance* is tested. Although by
taken into account the literature, a positive effect of empowerment on performance* is assumed, it
is not taken as a proposition in this thesis. However, the outcome of this relationship is needed in
testing the mediating model, according to figure 2.3. The bivariate analysis shows a strong
correlation (see the preliminary analysis), which is confirmed by the regression analysis (β=.60,
t=3.81, p<.01). Thus, there could be stated that a positive, direct relation between empowerment
and productivity.
Step 1.2 Regression model of trust on performance*
The effect of trust as a second independent variable is tested on productivity as well. Since
trust consists of three dimensions, all three dimensions are tested on the dependent variable
performance*. Only one of these variables has a significant influence on the dependent variable
performance*. Trust from management shows a strong and positive influence on performance*
(β=.67, t=4.46, p<.01) and is significant on a significance level of 99%. In contrast, trust in
management (β=-.14, t=-.72, p>.10) and trust in colleagues (β=-.18, t=-.92, p>.10) are both not
significant at a 95% significant level. This is in accordance with the correlation matrix, made in the
bivariate analysis.
Step 1.3 Regression model of empowerment and trust on performance*
Since both trust from management and empowerment have a strong influence on
performance*, it is interesting to test the independent variables on the dependent variable,
controlled for each other in a stepwise regression analysis. Firstly, the variable with the highest
correlation with performance* is added to the regression model, see appendix F. Thus, trust from
management is added first. Then, empowerment is added. Finally, trust in management and trust in
29
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
colleagues are added to the model. Trust from management and empowerment, in model 2 of the
stepwise regression model are still indicated as significant predictors of performance* (R2=.56
Fchange=6.41 p<.05). The third model of the stepwise regression model includes all dimensions of
trust and empowerment. The level of explanation of this model is .61 (R2=.61). This means that
productivity is predicted for 61% by empowerment and trust at a significance level of 90%. The
stepwise regression model can be found in appendix F.
4.4.2. Step 2. Regression model of independent variables on the mediating variable
In the second step of the regression model, the direct effect of the independent variables
empowerment, trust in management, trust from management, and trust in colleagues are tested for
the mediating variable agility. This step is illustrated in figure 4.1, which is referred to as path A.
Step 2.1 Regression model of empowerment on agility
Although regarding the relationship with performance* empowerment is not taken into
account, regarding the relationship with agility it is. Assumed is that if the level of empowerment
increases, the agility of an organization increases as well. The bivariate analysis in table 4.1 shows a
non-significant outcome and a slightly positive correlation, which is confirmed by the regression
analysis (β=.04, t=.18, p>.10). Thus, in this thesis there can be concluded that empowerment does
not influence the agility of an organization at a significance level of 95%, which means that
hypothesis 1 is not supported.
Step 2.2 Regression model of trust on agility
Regarding the variables trust in management, trust from management, and trust in
colleagues assumed is that when the level of interpersonal trust increases, the agility of an
organization will be experiencing an increase as well. The bivariate analysis in the table 4.1 shows a
marginal significant effect of trust in management on the agility of an organization, this is confirmed
by the regression analysis (β=.32, t=1.70, p<.10). Thus, there is a positive relationship between trust
in management and agility at a significance level of 90% and therefore hypothesis 2a is marginally
confirmed.
Regarding Trust in colleagues there is assumed that it has a positive influence on the agility
of an organization as well. The bivariate analysis shows a non-significant, negative effect (see table
4.1) and this is confirmed by the regression analysis (β=-.15, t=-.80, p>.10). Thus, there is no
significant relationship between trust in colleagues and agility at a significance level of 95% and
therefore hypothesis 2b is not supported.
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
Another assumption is that trust from management has a positive influence on the agility of
an organization. The bivariate analysis shows a marginal significant effect (see table 4.1) and this is
confirmed by the regression analysis (β=.35, t=1.91, p<.10). Thus, there is indeed a positive
relationship between trust from management and agility; however the relationship is marginally
significant at a significance level of 90%. Nonetheless, hypothesis 2c is marginally confirmed.
Step 2.3 Regression model of empowerment and trust on agility
To measure the effect of all independent variables on the mediating variable, controlled for
each other, a stepwise regression analysis is conducted. The variables are added in the stepwise
regression model according correlation matrix, the highest (marginally) significant correlation are
added at first, than the one with the second highest correlation, and so on, see table 4.1. This
stepwise regression model indicates that trust from management and trust in management are
2
marginal significant predictors for agility (R =.23, Fchange=3.55, p<.10). The third model of the
stepwise regression analysis includes trust in colleagues and empowerment in one step, since those
independent variables showed no significant effect in the bivariate analysis. The level of explanation
of this model is .33 (R2=.33), but this model is not significant. Thus, only trust from management and
trust in management are marginal significant predictors of agility at a significance level of 90%. The
stepwise regression model can be found in appendix G.
4.4.3. Step 3. Regression model of mediating variable on dependent variable
In the third step of the regression model, the direct effect of the mediating variable agility is
tested on the dependent variable performance*. This step is illustrated in figure 4.1, which is
referred to as path B.
Step 3.1 Regression model of agility on performance*
Based on the literature and other research, assumed is that if an organization is more agile,
the performance will increase as well. Chosen is to use an aggregation of the variable productivity,
indicating performance* in the aggregated conceptual model. The bivariate analysis shows a
significant effect and the first step in the regression analysis confirms this relationship between
agility and performance* (β=.37, t=2.04, p<.05) at a significance level of 95%. Thus, concluding it can
be stated that there is a significant relationship between agility and performance*. This effect can be
strengthened by the impact of a moderating variable, namely the turbulence of the environment.
Therefore a second step is taken, by adding the variable environmental turbulence. Model 2 of this
analysis shows that both variables are not significant at a significant level of 95%. Therefore,
31
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
executing a third model with both the variables agility, environmental turbulence and the interaction
between both cannot have a significant result. This is shown in appendix H.
Surprisingly, by executing this model on the dataset of the survey on the organizational level,
a significant interaction was found. As described in paragraph 4.3, both agility and environmental
turbulence have a significant effect on the performance compared to competitors (β=.34, t=2.24,
p<.05 resp. β=-.33, t=-2.15, p<.05). The interaction effect is found to be significant as well at a 99%
significance level (β=.41, t=2.62, p<.01).
5
4,5
4
3,5
3
2,5
2
1,5
1
Performnace
Low
Environmental
turbulence
High
Environmental
turbulence
Low Agility
High Agility
Figure 4. Interaction effect of agility and environmental turbulence, analysed on the organizational level of analysis
4.4.4. Step 4. Regression model of mediating effect
In the fourth step of the regression model, the mediating effect of agility on the relationship
between the independent variables empowerment, trust in management, trust from management,
and trust in colleagues and the dependent variable performance* are tested. This step is illustrated
in figure 4.1, which is referred to as path C’.
Step 4.1 Regression model of mediating effect of agility between empowerment and
performance*
A stepwise regression analysis is conducted to see whether agility has a mediating effect on
the relationship between empowerment and performance*. First, the effect of empowerment on
performance is described in step 1.1 and it shows a positive and significant effect. Second, agility is
added to the regression model. This step indicated that the empowerment and agility are significant
predictors of performance* (R2=.48, Fchange=11.62, p<.01), and these variables explain 48% of the
dependent variable, performance. The analysis shows that the significance of empowerment does
not change, in fact, it remains highly significant (β=.59, t=4.07, p<.01). This means that the
relationship between empowerment and performance* is not fully mediated by the mediator agility.
The stepwise regression model can be found in appendix I. Since the beta of empowerment is slightly
32
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
lower when agility is added, it is possible that agility functions as a partial mediator. To prove this, a
more complex test will be conducted. However, since the change of the beta is minimal (.01), no
mediating effect is expected. To analyze the possible partial mediation effect, PROCESS is used,
which combines various tests and is based on a logistic regression-based path analytical framework
for estimating direct and indirect effects in various mediator models (Hayes, 2012). As expected,
there is no partial mediation effect. The PROCESS outcome shows that there is a probability of 95%
change that the effect of the mediator is between -.07 and +.21, which means that the impact can
also be 0. Thus, agility does not mediate the relationship between empowerment and performance*.
The result of the PROCESS analysis can be found in appendix I.
Step 4.1 Regression model of mediating effect of agility between trust and performance*
To see what the effect of the second set of independent variables will be on performance*,
mediated by agility, a stepwise regression analysis is conducted. Step 1.2 shows that on the one hand
trust in management and trust in colleagues do not have a significant effect on performance*, and
trust from management on the other hand has a significant effect on performance*. Therefore, only
trust from management is analyzed to find out whether agility mediates the relationship with
performance*. The analysis shows that trust from management stays significant at a significance
level of 99% (β=.62, t=3.96, p<.01), the effect is less strong but significant. The stepwise regression
model can be found in appendix I. This result means that there is no full mediation, but it could be
that agility is partially mediating this relationship. Whether the relationship between trust from
management and productivity is mediated by agility is checked by a analysis with PROCESS.
Unfortunately, the effect of path C’ (β=.59, t=4.08, p<.01) is only slightly smaller than the effect of
path C (β=.67, t=4.61, p<.01). This means that there is no partial mediation of agility between trust
from management and performance*. The result of the PROCESS analysis can be found in appendix J.
33
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
4.5.
HYPOTHESES OVERVIEW
Environmental
turbulence
Empowerment
H1
H3b
Agility
H2a
Trust from management
Organizational
performance*
H3a
H2b
Trust in management
H2c
Trust in colleagues
Figure 4.3. Final theoretical model
Supported or
not supported
Not
supported
Hypothesis
H1
Empowerment has a positive influence on the agility of an organization
H2a
H2b
H2c
H3a
H3b
Trust from management has a positive influence on the agility of an organization
Supported
Trust in management has a positive influence on the agility of an organization
Supported
Trust in colleagues has a positive influence on the agility of an organization
Not
supported
The agility of an organization has a positive influence on the performance of an
organization
The relationship between agility and organizational performance is moderated by the
environmental turbulence
Supported
Not
supported
Figure 4.4. Final proposition overview
Environmental
turbulence
Empowerment
Productivity
Performance
Agility
Trust from management
Trust in management
Figure 4.5 Extended model, based on the results
34
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
5. DISCUSSION
In this chapter the results of the analyses done in the previous chapter will be reviewed. The first
paragraph comprises the discussion of the results. This part starts with the hypotheses and will be
followed by the results of the mediating effect of agility.
5.1.
DISCUSSION
The main objective of this study was to find out what the effect of the relational dimension is on
the agility of an organization. The need for this objective came from PMtD, a consultancy
organization in Rotterdam, that strongly believes that People Make the Difference. Besides, agility is
seen as a current topic at PMtD. The actuality and importance in business of this phenomenon is
strengthened by many people I spoke with during my study and by an article published by Yacht
(2012) about the agility of organizations. This article claims that 82% of the organizations
investigated by Yacht confirm that agility is a topic which stands high on the agenda. Additionally,
many organizations argue that their agility increases by developing strategic HR, which is done by
recruiting people with the right knowledge and having a more balanced ratio between flexible and
full-time employees in the organization (Yacht, 2012). Empowerment and trust are also relational
elements (i.e. human resource elements) that increase the motivation and productivity of employees
(Conger, 2004). The question remains: do interpersonal trust and empowerment feelings of
employees within an organization strengthen the agility of an organization?
Sherehiy, Karwowski, & Layer (2007) confirm that an agile organization requires an agile
workforce. And since many authors have said that employee empowerment makes a workforce agile,
a positive relation between these constructs is expected. This research shows that the thought of
empowerment makes the workforce agile; it does not directly mean that empowerment makes an
organization agile as well. Having an agile workforce cannot be seen as equal to an agile organization.
Thus, as mentioned in paragraph 4.4, psychological empowerment does not directly influence the
agility of an organization. However, empowerment in this thesis is the psychological part and
comprises meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact, which means perceived autonomy
of the management or at least autonomous feelings of the employee. That means that the employee
feels personally involved in the task feels that he has the capacity to perform a task well, feels that
he can decide how to perform his task and also feels that he has an influence on the department by
performing his task. By scheduling his own work and making his own decisions it would reduce
inertia. Based on this dataset, this does not seems to be the case; it might be a large step for
psychological empowerment to directly influencing the agility of an organization. However, two
35
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
possible paths can be identified in what way empowerment could indirectly influence the agility of
an organization. One path follows the softer side of motivation (i.e. more intrinsic factors), while the
other path follows the harder side of motivation (i.e. more extrinsic factors). Psychological
empowerment leads to feelings of self-efficacy (Conger, 2004) and self-efficacy could impact the risk
taking behavior, more innovative behavior, and/or more entrepreneurial behavior (i.e. agility). As
described in the literature section, being agile means to stay constantly in touch with your customers
and partners. By exchanging ideas and using the dynamic capabilities (i.e. sensing, responding, and
learning), innovative and entrepreneurial behavior will be supported. Psychological empowerment
might contribute more to an individual achievement than it does to an overall organizational goal,
such as agility. The other path is more focused on influencing the hard side of motivation, such as
productivity. This is analyzed in the current data and confirms that productivity influences the agility
of an organization (β=.55, t=2.44, p<.05). However, it does confirm an indirect effect of
empowerment on agility, but it does not confirm a mediating effect of productivity between the
relationship of empowerment and agility. Concluding, it can be stated that there is no direct effect of
psychological empowerment on organizational agility; a mediator is required to form the bridge
between psychological empowerment and organizational agility.
Trust is mentioned as the second antecedent of agility in this research. Although agility is a
new phenomenon in business literature, it is seen as the extension of strategic flexibility
(Oosterhout, 2010). Since more literature of trust is found regarding strategic flexibility than agility,
the relationship between trust and strategic flexibility is investigated, but will be treated as agility.
Assumed was that all types of trust have a positive influence on agility. Although Wintrobe & Breton
(1986) argue that a stronger effect exists in vertical relationships, expected was that horizontal
relationships leads to agility as well. The results however show that trust from management and trust
in management have a positive influence on the agility of an organization. Which on the one hand is
not surprisingly, since Wintrobe & Breton (1986) stated that horizontal relationships are less
important than vertical relationships regarding interpersonal trust. On the other hand, if one trusts
his colleague, one does not have the urgency to control the task of a colleague. This could increase
the speed and flexibility of work, which are both parts of agility. Thus, it could be that the persons
invited for this study, are not or only slightly depending on their colleagues for their tasks. Because
for being agile, employees should utilize the knowledge of the other. Interpersonal trust in
colleagues does not necessarily lead to agility, but may have another effect. For instance, trust in
colleagues positively enhances knowledge sharing (Gray, 2001; Staples & Webster, 2008), and for
being agile, knowledge richness, and digital knowledge options are important antecedents of
customer agility and partnering agility (Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover, 2003). Thus, while in
this thesis no direct relationship of trust in colleagues on agility is found, for future research it might
36
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
be interesting to look at the relationship of trust in colleagues on knowledge sharing, which in turn
affects agility.
Being agile is seen as a driver to achieve competitive advantages (Sherehiy, Karwowski, &
Layer, 2007) and overall performance. Therefore, assumed was that agility functions as mediator to
see whether being agile helps to increase the performance of an organization. This is confirmed in
the aggregated model. Although Tallon & Pinsonneault (2011) describe that the gain in performance
will be higher when the relationship between agility and performance is moderated by
environmental turbulence, surprisingly this is not confirmed by the aggregated model of this
research. Environmental turbulence is measured as the intensity of competitors. It could be that the
construct of environmental turbulence became too small to have an impact, since only intensity of
the competitors as one of the three environmental turbulence dimensions (i.e. market turbulence,
technology turbulence, and competitors’ turbulence) correlates into one construct. When also
market turbulence and technology turbulence are taken into account, it was more likely that an
effect would occur. Especially since it is more important to be able to get along with the changing
environment and technology instead of with the competitors, since competitors might not be able to
keep up with the environmental turbulence, which makes the intensity of competitors lower than the
market turbulence.
The mediating effect of agility in the relationships of empowerment and performance* and
of trust and performance* is mentioned and leading through the research: ‘Do trust and
empowerment influence the agility of an organization and how does agility in turn influence the
performance?’. No full mediation was found and after testing for partial mediation using PROCESS,
again a non-supporting answer was found. Although empowerment and trust from management do
influence agility and an effect of agility on performance* was found as well; no mediating effect was
confirmed. This outcome can be explained by the relatively new construct of agility, in particular the
construct agility in relation with empowerment and trust. The scale of agility from Tallon &
Pinsonneault (2011) was used, which might not be applicable for every organization; the construct
seems to focus more on commercial institutions, since some questions require a response towards
actions of competitors. The sample of Tallon & Pinsonneault (2011) comprises publicly traded firms,
while the sample of this thesis consists of a variety of organizations; for instance both health care
organizations and industrial organizations are included in the sample. By controlling for profit and
non-profit organizations, there seems to be no difference in the agility even though results show that
the values are more centered for profit organizations.
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
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6. CONCLUSION
This chapter will give an answer to the main research question: ‘Do trust and empowerment
influence the agility of an organization and how does agility in turn influence the performance?’.
Besides, the theoretical implications are described in the second paragraph, followed by the practical
implications in the third paragraph. At the end of this chapter, the limitations of the study and
suggestions for future research are described.
6.1.
CONCLUSION
Concluding it can be stated that empowerment and trust in colleagues do not directly lead to
an agile organization, while trust in management and trust from management positively influence
the agility of an organization.
Agility does influence the performance* of an organization (i.e. aggregated productivity), but
this relationship is not strengthen by the moderator environmental turbulence though. The dataset
on the organizational level found a moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the
relationship between agility and performance compared to competitors.
6.2.
THEORECTICAL IMPLICATIONS
By addressing several gaps in business literature, this thesis made some theoretical
contributions. Agility as a new field of interest was not mentioned in previous business literature
often. It originates from the Information Technology sector and has only recently expanded to
business strategy. Although it can be measured solely on the organizational level, interesting to know
is how individuals can contribute to this phenomenon. While empowerment was expected to be an
antecedent of agility, it does not seem to have an effect. Trust in management and trust from
management, however, show a significant or marginal significant effect on agility. Therefore, it
seems that vertical relationships of trust do influence the agility of an organization. Those
hypotheses confirm that interpersonal trust is important for responding quickly to changes in the
environment. This relationship was not tested before and therefore it contributes to the already
published literature on agility, a new interesting path was discovered for further research.
6.3.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIO NS
At first sight, the expected relationships are not all proven to be true. The extended
model can contribute to practice more. Employees that perceive trust from their management or
supervisor and that feel more empowered, are proven to be more productive. It is important for
managers is to show their trust in employees, in order to gain higher performance. They must also
give their employees the feeling that they are empowered.
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
Which in turn affects the agility and agility leads to higher performance. Thus, by reaching a certain
level of productivity, an organization is able to sense, respond, and learn of developments in the
external environment. By being on that level of productivity, an organization can be agile. That
means that the organization can focus on changes and trends in the external environment by using
the dynamic capabilities. Besides, involvement of customers and partners makes them more agile as
well. Moreover, the agility of an organization helps to improve the performance of an organization.
Concluding that there is an indirect effect of trust and empowerment on the agility of an
organization, it is worthwhile for managers to stimulate empowerment of their employees and
trustful relationships.
6.4.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
A limitation of the research is that the conceptual model and thus the research, is based on
an aggregated level. The surveys are conducted on two levels of analysis: the organizational level
and the individual level, due to the measurement levels of the variables. In order to be able to
analyze the conceptual model, the results of the survey on the individual level of analysis are
aggregated to the organizational level. Although 28 companies are involved in the study, per
organization a relative small group respondents and informants are asked to participate in the study.
Besides, although productivity and organizational performance seemed to correlate, they do
not measure exactly the same thing. This can be seen in the fact that environmental turbulence
moderates the relationship between agility and performance, but not the relationship between
agility and productivity (i.e. performance*).
Another limitation is that the focus on the business relations of PMtD was too broad for this
initial research about the agility of organizations. A variety of organizations in various sectors where
asked to participate. The sample consists of health care organizations, knowledge organizations,
industrial organizations, and organizations in the financial service sector. Even though a broad
sample was taken to test the conceptual model, this could be seen as an advantage because the
variety of sectors makes this research more generalizable. Due to the findings, a first step is taken
and in future research one might look at one specific sector to find out whether empowerment may
influence the agility of an organization. Besides, when the focus is on one sector, environmental
turbulence is similar for all organizations, which makes them more comparable and a stronger effect
might be found.
A limitation according to the construct psychological empowerment is that it measures the
feeling of employees regarding their task. The construct consists of four dimensions, which all refer
to the feeling that one has (i.e. the ability to perform a certain task with his/her capabilities). Since
psychological empowerment is driven by an intrinsic force (i.e. feeling) this does not directly mean
39
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
that one actually acts empowered. So, for future research another construct might be used to
measure empowerment. For example more structural empowerment: the flexibility one has to
perform a task, or the empowerment one has according to the manager.
To measure agility, the scale of Tallon & Pinsonneault (2011) is used, which is quite new and
might still need some fine-tuning. For example, the questions in this scale might not be applicable for
each organization in the sample set. In the health care industry, for instance, some questions could
not be applied as easy as in the financial industry. One of the items of agility asked how easy an
organization is able to react to the introduction of a new product or service by a competitor in the
same industry. If an informant of an organization experiences trouble by answering the question, this
might influence the results. Thus, for future research one might do a pre-test in order to check
whether all questions are understandable and applicable. Although, some questions might not be
applicable to the current situation for example, health care institutions become more and more
commercial and thus it is possible that the questions are applicable in a while. Besides, not all
industries experience the same level of competitors and thus might experience difficulty as well in
answering questions which refers to competitors. On top of that, item five was deleted in the validity
and reliability section, since it does not correspond into one construct. This can be a result of
differences in outcomes of the surveys. Concluding, besides having a sample in one industry,
adapting questions of agility to the chosen sample is a requirement as well. This can be achieved by
performing a pre-test for instance.
For future research it might be interesting to investigate the extended model below (i.e. figure
6.1), which is based on this initial research. This model focusses on how the relational dimensions,
empowerment and trust, could have an indirect effect on the agility of an organization. And thus it
focuses on how organizations can increase their agility as well, by focusing on empowerment and
trust on the individual level, which can be influenced by the manager.
Environmental
turbulence
Empowerment
Productivity
Performance
Agility
Trust from management
Trust in management
Trust in colleagues
Figure 6.1 Extended model: suggestion for future research
Knowledge
sharing
40
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
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46
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: SURVEY ON INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
Werklocatie
Locatie
Betreft de locatie waar de respondent gemiddeld genomen zijn werkzaamheden uitvoert. Er wordt
gevraagd aan te geven hoeveel procent van de totale werktijd (100%) de respondent op verschillende
locaties werkt.
1. Geef aan in percentages hoeveel tijd je gemiddeld genomen op elk van de onderstaande
locaties besteedt aan het uitvoeren van jouw werkzaamheden. Verdeel je totale werktijd over
de verschillende locaties. Je kunt alleen gehele procentuele aantallen invullen: het totaal
dient gelijk te zijn aan 100%.
A. Op kantoor
B. Op extern kantoor of vergaderlocatie
C. Op klantlocatie
D. Onderweg
E. Thuis
Empowerment
Betekenis
Betreft de mate waarin de respondent zijn werkzaamheden betekenisvol acht, alsmede het belang
dat hij aan zijn werkzaamheden hecht.
1. Het werk dat ik doe, is erg belangrijk voor mij.
2. Mijn werkactiviteiten hebben persoonlijke betekenis voor mij.
3. Het werk dat ik doe, is betekenisvol voor mij.
Competentie
Betreft de mate waarin de respondent vertrouwen heeft in zijn eigen capaciteiten en het vermogen
om zijn werkzaamheden goed te verrichten.
1. Ik heb vertrouwen in mijn vermogen om mijn werk te doen.
2. Ik ben zelfverzekerd voor wat betreft mijn capaciteiten om mijn werkzaamheden te
verrichten.
3. Ik heb de vaardigheden aangeleerd die noodzakelijk zijn voor mijn werk.
Zelfbeschikking
Betreft de mate waarin de respondent zelf kan beslissen hoe hij zijn werkzaamheden verricht.
1. Ik heb aanzienlijke zelfstandigheid om te bepalen hoe ik mijn werk doe.
2. Ik kan zelf beslissen hoe ik mijn werk moet aanpakken.
3. Ik heb ruime gelegenheid voor onafhankelijkheid en vrijheid ten aanzien van de manier
waarop ik mijn werk verricht.
Impact
Betreft de mate waarin de respondent een invloed heeft op hetgeen er binnen zijn afdeling gebeurt.
1. Mijn impact op hetgeen er binnen mijn afdeling gebeurt, is groot.
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2. Ik heb veel controle over hetgeen er binnen mijn afdeling gebeurt.
3. Ik heb een aanzienlijke invloed op hetgeen er binnen mijn afdeling gebeurt.
Vertrouwen
Vertrouwen in het management
Betreft de mate waarin de respondent vertrouwen heeft in het (top level) management van de
organisatie. Dit construct omvat o.a. aspecten als het tegemoet komen aan de opvattingen van de
medewerkers, het nemen van verstandige beslissingen over de toekomst van de organisatie, en het
altijd rechtvaardig behandelen van de respondent.
1. Het management is oprecht in het streven om tegemoet te komen aan de opvattingen van
de medewerkers.
2. Het management verricht zijn taken efficiënt, voor zover ik dat kan beoordelen.
3. Ik vertrouw erop dat het management verstandige beslissingen neemt over de toekomst van
[de organisatie].
4. Ik heb er alle vertrouwen in dat [de organisatie] altijd zal proberen me rechtvaardig te
behandelen.
Vertrouwen in collega’s
Betreft de mate waarin de respondent vertrouwen heeft in zijn collega’s. Dit construct omvat o.a.
aspecten als het efficiënt verrichten van werkzaamheden, het nemen van verstandige beslissingen
met het oog op de toekomst van de organisatie, en het altijd rechtvaardig behandelen van de
respondent.
5. Mijn collega’s zijn oprecht in hun streven om tegemoet te komen aan de opvattingen van de
managers.
6. Mijn collega’s verrichten hun taken efficiënt, voor zover ik dat kan beoordelen.
7. Er kan op worden vertrouwd dat mijn collega’s verstandige beslissingen nemen met het oog
op de toekomst van [de organisatie].
8. Ik heb er alle vertrouwen in dat mijn collega’s altijd zullen proberen om me rechtvaardig te
behandelen.
Productiviteit
Betreft de mate van productiviteit van de respondent (eigen beoordeling). Dit construct omvat o.a.
aspecten als efficiëntie, effectiviteit, en kwaliteit van werkresultaten.
1. Ik geloof dat ik een effectieve medewerker ben.
2. Binnen mijn werkgroep behoren mijn eigen prestaties naar mijn oordeel tot de beste 25%.
3. Ik ben tevreden over de kwaliteit van mijn werkresultaten.
4. Ik werk erg efficiënt.
5. Ik ben een zeer productieve medewerker.
6. Ik verricht doorgaans veel (of grote hoeveelheden) werk.
7. Ik zorg ervoor dat ik gestelde deadlines haal.
8. Ik werk regelmatig over om mijn werk af te maken.
9. In mijn werk heb ik geregeld momenten die ik als ‘verloren’ beschouw.
10. Mijn werkresultaten voldoen doorgaans aan alle eisen die eraan gesteld worden.
11. Ik verricht mijn werkzaamheden altijd op de juiste manier, ook als dit betekent dat ik
bepaalde eisen of deadlines niet haal.
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12. Mijn activiteiten en de projecten waarin ik actief ben, blijven doorgaans binnen het gestelde
budget.
13. Mijn activiteiten en/of de projecten waarin ik actief ben, zijn doorgaans erg winstgevend
voor de organisatie.
14. Klanten (zowel extern alsook interne afdelingen of groepen) zijn altijd tevreden over de door
mij verrichte werkzaamheden.
15. De projecten waarin ik actief ben, worden altijd als een succes beschouwd.
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APPENDIX B: SURVEY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL
Environmental turbulence
Turbulentie van de omgeving betreft onder andere de markt turbulentie, intensiteit van concurrentie,
technologische concurrentie.
Geef aan voor onderstaande stellingen, in hoeverre dit toepasbaar is op de operationele omgeving
van de organisatie op een schaal van 1 tot 5. (1 = weinig en 5 = heel erg)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Mate van markt turbulentie
Frequentie van veranderingen in de klant voorkeur
Mogelijkheid tot het reduceren van markt onzekerheden
Mogelijkheid tot het reageren op markt kansen
Mate van op promotie gebaseerde concurrentie
Mate van concurrentie intensiteit
Gelijkheid in aanbod van producten door concurrenten
Mate van op prijs gebaseerde concurrentie
Mate van technologische turbulentie in de omgeving
Leiderschap in product en/of proces innovatie
Impact van nieuwe technologieën op operationeel gebied
Hoe eenvoudig en snel kan uw bedrijf de volgende acties uitvoeren?
Geef aan in hoeverre u het eens bent met onderstaande stellingen (1= Sterk mee oneens; 5=Sterk mee
eens).
1. Wisselen van leverancier ten behoeve van lagere kosten, betere kwaliteit of betere
leveringstijden.
2. Uitbreiden naar nieuwe regionale of internationale markten.
3. Reageren op veranderingen in de eisen van gebruikers.
4. Personaliseren van een product of dienst voor een individuele klant.
5. Toepassen van nieuwe technologieën om beter, sneller en goedkoper producten en/of
diensten te produceren.
6. Veranderen van de diversiteit van producten of diensten (uitbreiden of reduceren).
7. Reageren op de lancering van een nieuw product of nieuwe dienst van concurrenten.
8. Introduceren van een nieuw prijs schema als reactie op de prijzen van concurrenten.
Organizational performance
Beoordeel onderstaande stelling over het afgelopen jaar (1=Significante daling; 5= Significante
stijging).
1. Verandering in marktaandeel in verhouding tot de grootste concurrent.
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Beoordeel de onderstaande stellingen (1=Slecht; 5=Uitstekend).
2. De algehele performance van uw organisatie het afgelopen jaar was:
3. In vergelijking met de concurrentie, de algehele performance van uw organisatie het
afgelopen jaar was:
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APPENDIX C: FACTOR ANALYSIS
Rotated Component Matrix Individual Level Survey
Component
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Ik werk erg efficiënt.
.76
.13
-.09
.02
.07
-.03
.04
.02
Ik geloof dat ik een effectieve medewerker ben.
.73
.16
.00
.05
.01
.01
.27
.08
Ik ben een zeer productieve medewerker.
.73
.17
.08
.06
-.07
.25
-.04
.07
Ik zorg ervoor dat ik gestelde deadlines haal.
.68
.10
.10
.07
.12
-.15
.01
.17
Binnen mijn werkgroep behoren mijn eigen prestaties naar
mijn oordeel tot de beste 25%.
.64
.10
.08
.16
-.02
.00
-.01
.21
Ik verricht doorgaans veel (of grote hoeveelheden) werk.
.62
.13
.11
.25
-.03
.22
-.09
.09
Ik ben tevreden over de kwaliteit van mijn werkresultaten.
.58
.25
.03
-.10
.13
.07
.03
.34
...ziet mijn manager mij als een betrouwbaar persoon.
.18
.88
.03
.11
.04
.02
.13
.12
...heeft mijn manager volledig vertrouwen in mij.
.29
.83
.05
.03
.06
-.09
.07
.06
...beschouwt mijn manager mij als een toegewijde
medewerker.
.18
.81
.13
.10
.00
.12
.11
.13
...vindt mijn manager dat ik naar behoren presteer.
.17
.78
.02
.06
.05
.04
.12
.08
.09
.02
.85
-.04
.09
.05
.09
.02
Er kan op worden vertrouwd dat het management
verstandige beslissingen neemt over de toekomst van de
organisatie.
-.02
.05
.82
.25
.18
-.02
-.06
.07
Het management van mijn organisatie verricht zijn taken
efficiënt, voor zover ik dat kan beoordelen.
.06
.07
.76
.26
.07
.13
.02
.01
Ik heb er alle vertrouwen in dat mijn organisatie altijd zal
proberen mij rechtvaardig te behandelen.
.05
.08
.75
-.18
.20
-.02
.10
.10
Ik heb een aanzienlijke invloed op hetgeen er binnen mijn
afdeling gebeurt.
.08
.09
.10
.87
.08
.05
.20
.09
Ik heb veel controle over hetgeen er binnen mijn afdeling
gebeurt.
.12
.11
.05
.87
.05
-.01
.09
.09
Mijn impact op hetgeen er binnen mijn afdeling gebeurt, is
groot.
.17
.06
.07
.86
.10
.03
.15
.04
.02
.13
.04
.06
.82
.07
.02
.10
-.03
.01
.17
.08
.80
.13
-.01
.11
.04
.01
.12
.04
.79
.00
.08
.15
Productivity
Trust from management
Trust in management
Het management van mijn organisatie is oprecht in het
streven om tegemoet te komen aan de opvattingen van de
medewerkers
Empowerment Impact
Trust in colleagues
Mijn collega's verrichten hun taken efficiënt, voor zover ik
dat kan beoordelen.
Er kan op worden vertrouwd dat mijn collega's verstandige
beslissingen nemen over de toekomst van de organisatie.
Ik heb er alle vertrouwen in dat mijn collega's altijd zullen
proberen om me rechtvaardig te behandelen.
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
Mijn collega's zijn oprecht in hun streven om tegemoet te
komen aan de opvattingen van de managers.
.18
-.04
.43
.05
.64
-.10
.07
.09
.06
.01
.04
.09
.04
.88
.01
.05
Het werk dat ik doe, is erg belangrijk voor mij.
-.01
.03
.04
.01
.04
.86
.01
.07
Het werk dat ik doe, is betekenisvol voor mij.
.11
.02
.01
-.04
.05
.85
.03
.19
Ik heb aanzienlijke zelfstandigheid om te bepalen hoe ik
mijn werk doe.
.03
.05
.01
.18
.02
.07
.87
.09
Ik kan zelf beslissen hoe ik mijn werk moet aanpakken.
.00
.18
.01
.10
.11
.09
.85
.02
Ik heb ruime gelegenheid voor onafhankelijkheid en
vrijheid ten aanzien van de manier waarop ik mijn werk
verricht.
.09
.16
.14
.12
.02
-.11
.80
.02
Ik heb vertrouwen in mijn vermogen om mijn werk te doen.
.29
.00
.00
.04
-.02
.09
.09
.80
Ik heb de vaardigheden aangeleerd die noodzakelijk zijn
voor mijn werk.
.20
.21
.06
.06
.15
.19
.01
.72
Ik ben zelfverzekerd voor wat betreft mijn capaciteiten om
mijn werkzaamheden te verrichten.
.27
.27
-.14
.26
-.04
.13
.05
.62
Empowerment Meaning
Mijn werkactiviteiten hebben persoonlijke betekenis voor
mij.
Empowerment Self-determination
Empowerment Competence
Rotated Component Matrix Organizational Level Survey
Component
1
2
3
4
Agility
Reageren op veranderingen in de eisen van gebruikers.
.84
.09
.09
.04
Personaliseren van een product of dienst voor een individuele
klant.
.84
.09
.00
.10
Veranderen van de diversiteit van producten of diensten
(uitbreiden of reduceren).
.82
.16
.26
-.10
Toepassen van nieuwe technologieën om beter, sneller en
goedkoper producten en/of diensten te produceren.
.81
.01
-.08
.40
Reageren op de lancering van een nieuw product of nieuwe
dienst van concurrenten.
.69
.26
.35
.07
Introduceren van een nieuw prijs schema als reactie op de prijzen
van concurrenten.
.64
.37
.15
-.43
Wisselen van leverancier ten behoeve van lagere kosten, betere
kwaliteit of betere leveringstijden.
.63
.05
.06
.24
De mate van concurrentie gebaseerd op prijs is ...
.12
.85
-.05
.17
De gelijkheid in het aanbod van producten door concurrenten is ...
.30
.83
-.02
.00
De intensiteit van concurrentie is ...
.18
.82
-.10
.35
-.02
.74
.11
-.13
-.09
.03
.82
.04
Stability of competitors in industry
De mate van concurrentie gebaseerd op promotie is ...
Stability of market and technology in industry
De frequentie van veranderingen in de voorkeur van de klant is ...
53
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
De aanwezigheid van organisaties die het voortouw nemen wat
betreft innovatie in producten en/of processen in deze industrie
is…
.25
.07
.70
-.07
De mogelijkheid tot het reduceren van onzekerheden in de markt
is ...
.18
-.01
.66
.05
De mate van technologische dynamiek in deze industrie is ...
.18
-.09
.63
.41
De impact van nieuwe technologieën op werkzaamheden is ...
-.07
-.15
.59
.59
De mate van markt dynamiek is ...
.20
.32
.05
.66
De mogelijkheid tot het reageren op kansen in de markt is ...
.38
.16
.23
.47
Rest
54
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
APPENDIX D: RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
Reliability analysis
Cronbach's Alpha
.86
.73
.84
.90
.79
Corrected item Total correlation
.73 - .74
.55 - .58
.66 - .75
.78 - .84
.33 - .59
Trust in Management
Trust in Colleagues
Trust from Management
Trust - Total
.84
.80
.89
.82
.58 - .73
.56 - .67
.69- .78
.33 - .57
.91
.94
.95
-
Productivity
.84
.56 - .65
.97
Construct
Empowerment - Meaning
Empowerment - Competence
Empowerment - Self Determination
Empowerment - Impact
Empowerment - Total
Rwgj
.91
.93
.94
.90
-
Table 1 Reliability table with the Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlations on the individual level
Construct
Environmental turbulence
Turbulence - Technology
Turbulence - Competitors
Turbulence - market
Agility
Cronbach's Alpha
.76
.69
.85
.55
Corrected item Total correlation
.30 - .56
.46 - .58
.58 - .79
.28 - .41
.89
.58 - .79
Rwgj
.94
.98
.99
.97
Table 2 Reliability table with the Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlations on the organizational level
55
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
APPENDIX E: REGRESSION ANALYSIS ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL
Agility – Environmental turbulence – Performance compared to competitors
Performance compared to competitors
Model
summary
Model
1
2
3
t
β
Agility
R2
F
Sig.
.21
Sig.
.45
.15
.04
2.10
.15
Agility
Environmental turbulence
2
R
F
Sig.
.34
-.33
Agility
Environmental turbulence
Interaction agility *
environmental turbulence
2
R
F
Sig.
.48
-0.19
.41
2,24
-2.15
.03
.04
.13
4.62
.04
3.15
-1.23
2.62
.00
.22
.01
.25
6.85
.01
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
APPENDIX F: REGRESSION ANALYSIS STEP 1
Trust from management / Empowerment / Trust in management / Trust in colleagues–
Performance*
Performance*
Model
summary
Model
1 Trust from management
R2
F
Sig.
B
.63
2 Trust from management
Empowerment
R2
F
Sig.
.47
.34
3 Trust from management
Empowerment
Trust in management
Trust in colleagues
R2
F
Sig.
.44
.39
-.02
-.17
SE B β
.14 .67
t
4.61
Sig.
.00
.45
21.23
.00
.14
.13
.50
.37
3.41
2.53
.00
.02
.56
6.41
.02
.14
.14
.08
.11
.47
.43
-.03
-.22
3.17
2.89
-.22
-1.48
.00
.01
.83
.15
.61
1.53
.24
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
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APPENDIX G: REGRESSION ANALYSIS STEP 2
Trust from management / Trust in management / Trust in colleagues / Empowerment –
Agility
Agility
Model
summary
Model
1
2
B
Trust from
management
R2
F
Sig.
Trust from
management
Trust in
management
2
R
F
Sig.
3
Trust from
management
Trust in
management
Trust in
colleagues
Empowerment
R2
F
Sig.
SE B
.85
.45
t
β
.35
Sig.
1.91
.07
.12
3.65
.07
.88
.43
.36
2.07
.05
.46
.24
.33
1.89
.07
.23
3.55
.07
.94
.47
.39
2.00
.06
.64
.26
.46
2.44
.02
-.62
-.19
.39
.46
-.31
-.08
-1.60
-.40
.12
.69
.33
1.62
.22
58
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
APPENDIX H: REGRESSION ANALYSIS STEP 3
Agility – Environmental turbulence – Performance*
Performance*
Model
summary
Model
B
1 Agility
R2
F
Sig.
.14
2 Agility
Environmental
turbulence
R2
F
Sig.
.12
.06
3 Agility
Turbulence
Agility *
Environmental
turbulence
R2
F
Sig.
.16
-.13
.07
SE B
.07
t
β
.37
Sig.
2.04
.05
.14
4.18
.05
.08
.06
.30
.19
1.55
.97
.13
.34
.17
.93
.34
.09
.21
.07
.42
-.45
.63
1.81
-.63
.93
.08
.53
.36
.20
.87
.36
59
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
APPENDIX I: REGRESSION ANALYSIS STEP 4
Empowerment – Agility - Environmental turbulence – Performance*
Performance*
Model
summary
Model
B
1 Empowerment
R2
F
Sig.
.54
2 Empowerment
Agility
R2
F
Sig.
.53
.14
3 Empowerment
Agility
Agility *
Environmental
turbulence
R2
F
Sig.
.55
.12
.03
SE B
.14
t
β
.60
Sig.
3.81
.00
.36
14.50
.00
.13
.06
.59
.35
4.07
2.44
.00
.02
.48
5.96
.02
.12
.05
.02
.61
.30
.27
4.43
2.15
1.94
.00
.04
.07
.55
3.75
.07
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
Trust from management – Agility – Environmental turbulence – Performance*
Performance*
Model
summary
Model
1
Trust from
management
B
SE B
β
.63
.14
.67
t
Sig.
4.61
.00
R2
F
Sig.
2
Trust from
management
Agility
R2
F
Sig.
3
.45
21,23
.00
.58
.15
.62
3.96
.00
.06
.06
.16
1.00
.33
.47
1.01
.33
Trust from
management
.59
.14
.63
4.25
.00
Agility
.04
.06
.10
.67
.51
Agility *
Environmental
turbulence
.03
.02
.26
1.82
.08
R2
F
Sig.
.54
3.30
.08
61
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
APPENDIX J: PROCESS ANALYSIS
Empowerment – Agility – Environmental turbulence – Performance*
Model
Y
X
M
V
=
=
=
=
=
14
Performance*
Empowerment
Agility
Environmental turbulence
Sample size
28
Outcome: Agility
Model Summary
R
,0347
R-sq
,0012
F
,0313
df1
1,0000
df2
26,0000
p
,8610
Model
constant
Empowerment
coeff
2,7564
,0811
se
1,7727
,4583
t
1,5549
,1769
p
,1321
,8610
Outcome: Performance*
Model Summary
R
,7428
R-sq
,5517
F
7,0774
df1
4,0000
df2
23,0000
p
,0007
Model
constant
Agility
Empowerment
Envir. Tur.
int_1
coeff
1,4492
,1129
,5495
,0112
,0245
se
,5103
,0685
,1291
,1623
,0542
t
2,8397
1,6472
4,2567
,0692
,4518
p
,0093
,1131
,0003
,9454
,6557
Interactions:
int_1
Agility
X
Environmental turbulence
62
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
direct and indirect effects
Direct effect of X on Y
Effect
SE
,5495
,1291
t
4,2567
p
,0003
Conditional indirect effect(s) of X on Y at values of the moderator(s)
Mediator
ZStabCON
-1,0130
-,0132
,9867
Agility
Agility
Agility
Effect
,0071
,0091
,0111
Boot SE
,0630
,0609
,0747
BootLLCI
-,0725
-,0917
-,1032
BootULCI
,2135
,1996
,2507
Trust from management – Agility – Environmental turbulence – Performance*
Model
Y
X
M
V
=
=
=
=
=
14
Performance*
Trust from management
Agility
Environmental turbulence
Sample size
28
Outcome: Agility
Model Summary
R
,3510
R-sq
,1232
F
3,6523
df1
1,0000
df2
26,0000
p
,0671
Model
coeff
constant
-,5187
Trust from mgt ,8522
se
1,8823
,4459
t
-,2756
1,9111
p
,7850
,0671
Outcome: Performance*
Model Summary
R
,7314
R-sq
,5349
F
6,6122
df1
4,0000
df2
23,0000
p
,0011
Model
coeff
constant
1,3019
Agility
,0363
Trust from mgt ,5940
Envir. Tur.
,0102
int_1
,0235
se
,5634
,0753
,1457
,1655
,0553
t
2,3110
,4826
4,0778
,0616
,4257
p
,0301
,6339
,0005
,9514
,6743
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Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
Interactions:
int_1
Agility
X
Environmental turbulence
direct and indirect effects
Direct effect of X on Y
Effect
SE
,5940
,1457
t
4,0778
p
,0005
Conditional indirect effect(s) of X on Y at values of the moderator(s)
Mediator
ZStabCON
-1,0130
-,0132
,9867
Agility
Agility
Agility
Effect
,0106
,0307
,0507
Boot SE
,0763
,0880
,1246
BootLLCI
-,1781
-,0994
-,0913
BootULCI
,1425
,2483
,4534
Trust in management – Agility – Environmental turbulence – Performance*
Model
Y
X
M
V
=
=
=
=
=
14
Performance*
Trust in management
Agility
Environmental turbulence
Sample size
28
Outcome: Agility
Model Summary
R
,3170
R-sq
,1005
F
2,9046
df1
1,0000
df2
26,0000
p
,1003
Model
coeff
constant
1,6171
Trust in mgt ,4402
se
,8631
,2583
t
1,8736
1,7043
p
,0723
,1003
64
Interpersonal trust, empowerment, and agility
Inge van Meurs
Outcome: Performance*
Model Summary
R
,5128
R-sq
,2630
F
2,0515
df1
4,0000
df2
23,0000
p
,1205
Model
coeff
constant
3,8187
Agility
,1838
Trust in mgt -,1445
Environ. Tur.-,0921
int_1
,0520
se
,4019
,0883
,1020
,2056
,0690
t
9,5012
2,0821
-1,4172
-,4481
,7533
p
,0000
,0487
,1698
,6583
,4589
Interactions:
int_1
Agility
X
Environmental turbulence
direct and indirect effects
Direct effect of X on Y
Effect
SE
-,1445
,1020
t
-1,4172
p
,1698
Conditional indirect effect(s) of X on Y at values of the moderator(s)
Mediator
Agility
Agility
Agility
ZStabCON
-1,0130
-,0132
,9867
Effect
,0577
,0806
,1035
Boot SE
,0518
,0686
,1010
BootLLCI
-,0066
-,0053
-,0218
BootULCI
,1997
,2729
,4350
65