Why do we trust strangers? That’s a question Rachel Campagna, chair of the Department of the College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, has made the subject of her lifelong scientific research.
She is most curious about understanding how trust shapes some people’s emotions based on their beliefs of other people’s good intentions, but her main academic focus is studying how that mentality facilitates positive relationships in the workplace. Most recently, she and a colleague looked at these questions in the context of gig work — and found that trust helps gig workers deal better with conflict.
Campagna and Jennifer Griffith, an associate professor of organization behavior and management, recently published astudylooking at gig workers' trust in their managers compared to traditional full-time workers. They surveyed 7,216 people, including 75% who identified as gig workers, using the online service Mechanical Turk which is run by Amazon.
About 1 in 10 Americans depend entirely on income from gig work, according to the Gig Economy Data Hub. That includes a range of work arrangements, including freelancing, self-employment, and subcontracted work.
The study authors say the nature of this work doesn't allow much time to build trusting relationships between gig workers and managers. Campagna and Griffith’s study found that it can affect their capacity to set goals, give direction, and provide and receive feedback.
The study focused on how connected employees feel to managers’ decisions or how much they trust that managers will keep their word.
According to the study, this distancing can interfere with advancing the gig workers’ careers with promotions and raises.
Yet, Campagna was surprised to find this lack of closeness is a “double-edged sword.” She says gig workers' distance from their workplace could make them more resilient to harmful, unexpected, or negative workplace events.
“They don’t really think they have their backs, so when someone harms them, they don’t really get angry,” she said. “That really doesn’t affect their performance as much.”
As Campagna explained, when full-time workers trust their manager, they usually feel let down when they violate their trust. But she said gig workers don’t get as emotionally attached.
Campagna said the pandemic has led many to adopt gig work as their main source of income. Even though the study did not count remote workers, she said this could throw light on how those relationships could be improved, especially when the paper concludes that gig workers “don’t feel human” due to how they are treated and the lack of relationships they have at work.
“It takes some time to get to know your employees,” she said. “But then it is the other person's responsibility to keep this relationship going.”
Campagna encouraged managers to rethink relationships with short-term workers, as they are also meaningful and necessary. She suggested posing questions, finding things in common, and opening the possibility to transfer them to another type of work arrangement or keep them closer for longer.
As for how someone can work towards being perceived more trustworthy, she said: “Just be a good person; it goes a long way.”
