The Impersonal Trust Scale (ITS)

Author of Tool: 

Vanhala, M., Puumalainen, K., & Blomqvist, K

Key references: 

Vanhala, M., Puumalainen, K., & Blomqvist, K. (2011). Impersonal trust: The development of the construct and the scale. Personnel Review, 40, 485-513.

Vanhala, M., & Ahteela, R. (2011). The effect of HRM practices on impersonal organizational trust. Management Research Review, 34(8), 869-888.

Primary use / Purpose: 

The Impersonal Trust Scale (ITS) is a 31-item inventory rated on a 5 point Likert-type scale. The scale’s purpose is to measure the degree of impersonal trust which exists within orginisations.

Background: 

Within large organizations trust is becoming both more valuable and more impossible to achieve. The traditional, interpersonal form of trust which previously existed within organisations has been replaced by a new more impersonal one. The Impersonal Trust Scale (ITS) aims to measure this newer more impersonal form of organizational trust. The ITS measures impersonal trust through two sub-categories: capability, and fairness, each measured with 13 and 18 items, respectively.

Psychometrics: 

The psychometric properties of the ITS are discussed in Vanhala, Puumalainen & Blomqvist (2011).

Keywords: 

• Anxiety
• Family

Files: 

The impersonal trust scale

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 

https://dx.doi.org/10.13072/midss.319