Trust and Career Chances: an empirical study of the effect of trust on pursuing managerial positions

This study examines the effect of trust in strangers on the chances of pursuing managerial positions. Trusting people seem to be more likely to become managers than less trusting people are. Data come from the British Household Panel Survey. This work also explores some mechanisms that can explain why the level of trust influences the achievement of manager positions. The level of trust might be an indicator of the social resources one may have. More trusting people tend to have more experience of interacting with strangers, so they have a higher number of weak social ties. With reference to the Granovetter’s Network Theory of job searching, through weak ties, people have better access to job information, and so have more career opportunities.