Trust and management-to-employee communication in Slovenian companies: Some evidence from the current economic crisis

This paper analyzes the importance of trust and management-to-employee communication among top Slovenian employers from the Golden Thread Survey. The paper analyzes the changes and impact of the deteriorating external economic situation on (a) company-employee relational trust, and on the (b) perceived importance of “trust and long-term relationships with the company in the eyes of the customer” by respondent managers. Furthermore, our analysis also looks at the impact of management-to-employee communication on both trust perspectives. The results show a stable level of company-employee relational trust in the face of the current economic crisis, despite a high level of perceived organizational process changes and a sharp decline in financial performance. On the other hand, the perceived importance of “trust and long-term relationships with the company in the eyes of the customer” has increased substantially as the crisis has deepened, supporting our claim that relationships and the external relationship orientation gain importance in the time of crisis. There is also a strong link between the degree of open and frequent management-to-employee communication, and both perspectives of measured trust among top Slovenian employers.