Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, United States
This study shows that organizations vary in their skill expectations for managers due to different levels of social trust. When employers have weaker trust in the local population, they expect managers to possess a higher level of technical skills, so that they could closely guide and supervise workers. But when the trust is strong, organizations place a greater emphasis on managers’ social skills, as they are expected to collaborate with and coordinate among workers who are given more discretion. To test this proposition, we analyze employers’ skill expectations using 40 thousand managerial jobs posted by multi-national firms in the digital sectors of 21 European Union countries. Our strictest analytical models rely on bilateral trust measures to predict skill expectations for managers, including fixed effects on country, firm, and occupation. This study demonstrates the role of social trust in shaping expected managerial roles.
