Trust, performance and well-being in Nordic working life and management research

In the last decades there has been a growing focus in working life and management research on sustainable organizational development that simultaneously improve organizational outcomes such as productivity and quality and employee outcomes such as well-being and job-satisfaction. Research has pointed to trust as an important component of participatory management practices having simultaneous positive outcomes for organizational productivity and employee well-being. The aim of this paper is to establish an overview of the results of Nordic working life and man-agement research inquiring in the consequences of trust based management practices for organi-zational and employee outcomes. The paper draws on a literature study of research publications (articles, dissertations, books) analysing empirical material from Nordic countries. The findings suggest that trust is an important prerequisite for establishing cooperation and employee partici-pation in the companies, combating sickness and high absence rates, developing innovative capa-bilities and successfully implementing organisational changes. The paper concludes with manage-rial advices for using trust as a strategic tool in Nordic companies.