The importance of Trust in digital transformation and SMART Government initiatives

Abstract

Abstract:

The existence of trust in the work environment is significant to organizational performance and competitiveness in an increasingly universal market (Combs et al., 2015). Several studies (Olivier, 2017) (Stephanie et al., 2014) has showed that promoting trusting relationships by an organization is an essential criterion of competitive advantage. Organizations that enhance of trust internally and externally earn advantages such as, attract loyal customers, high performance by employee and good position in market (Roderick and Roy, 2010). Furthermore, trust has several benefits on firms’ outcomes such as increase sales, high profits, minimize worker turnover and employees achieve high level of cooperation among others.

Lack of trust in government threatens the desire of people and business obey to government policies and participate to a potential economic recovery (Tao and Yunfan, 2010). The validity of organizations is construct based on the presence of trust and is significant for preserving social cohesion. A study was conducted by (Nils and Darja, 2008) showed that the impact of lacking trust in an organization resulted in several disadvantages such as, reduction in performance, work quality, sharing information, spirits of workers and increase in group combats. In addition, the employees prefer individual interest over group interest and expect negative comments from the manager. This result in, high supervision from mangers on employees that decreased the level of trust. Therefore, the presence of trust is essential to governments, organizations both public and private in providing services.