ON CERTAIN ISSUES OF TRUST IN ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The article examines trust as a strategic resource of organizational management and a critical factor in managerial decision-making under conditions of war-related risks, economic turbulence, and intense competition. Drawing on an interdisciplinary perspective, the author synthesizes key theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of trust, clarifies its societal, integrative, interactive, communicative, adaptive, and predictive functions, and describes its subject–object structure. The paper proposes an operational definition of managerial trust as the confidence of actors in the reliability, predictability, and integrity of other participants and of the decisions being made, based on shared knowledge, common values, and both formal and informal organizational mechanisms. The study distinguishes types of trust that are particularly relevant for management (trust grounded in rational calculation, accumulated knowledge and prior interaction, and value- based similarity) and identifies three core dimensions of trust within decision-making processes: trust in information, trust in the team, and trust in the organization and its values. It is argued that a sufficient level of trust reduces transaction costs, decreases the need for excessive control, accelerates communication, facilitates the implementation of innovations, and strengthens employee loyalty. The article substantiates the usefulness of HR analytics tools and internal communication audits for assessing and maintaining trust as a strategic organizational asset. Special attention is paid to the role of trust in Ukrainian organizations facing wartime challenges and post-war reconstruction, where it becomes a prerequisite for resilient leadership, stakeholder alignment, and the development of a partnership-oriented organizational culture. The findings may be applied to improving human resource management practices and designing systems for monitoring organizational trust.