‘High trust’ and ‘low trust’ workplace settings: Implications for our mental health and wellbeing

Trust is “an essential condition of human society” (Steinacker, 2019, p. 1), unifying families, communities, groups, and countries. Without trust, governments, businesses, and institutions (e.g. healthcare, educational, religious, media and research) would be unable to function effectively (Gustafsson et al., 2020). Yet, in the 21st century, there has been an erosion of trust in the organizations or groups that previously served as the cornerstones of societies (Agley, 2020; Calnan & Sanford, 2004; Camporesi et al., 2017; Hutchinson, 2018; Kaltenborn et al., 2017; Lauret, 2018). This erosion has filtered down into workplaces, with cynicism now characteristic of the way in which many employees view those in authority (Petitta & Jiang, 2019).