Multigenerational Men and Women and Organisational Trust in Industrial Multinational Firms in Portugal

The concept of organisational trustTrust, has been considered as a promoter of increased performancePerformance and, as such, has raised a broad and growing interest in the organisational literature. However, there are other less studied variables with apparently positive links, which have not been consistently confirmed by empirical research and therefore a more thorough understanding is required. The study was carried out in four multinational industrialOrganisations companies with the primary objective of analysing the relationshipRelationships between organisational trustOrganisational trust, service length Seniority (different generations in organisations) and employee genderEmployees. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was used — Schoorman and Ballinger’s scale (Leadership, trust and client service in veterinary hospitals. Purdue University, 2006)—which was applied in these four organisationsOrganisations and continues to be one of the most promising instruments for the study of trustTrust between subordinates and leaders or managersManagers. The study provides a set of results that characterize the degree of organisational trustDegree of organisationsl trust, showing not only that trust is slightly lower among womenWomen when compared to menMen in these organisationsOrganisations, but also that is higher among employeesEmployees with less service length in the companySeniority. In conclusion, the article outlines implications for practice and fosters further discussion and future research.