Out of sight – Out of trust? An analysis of the mediating role of communication frequency and quality in the relationship between workplace isolation and trust

Abstract

The current study examines how workplace isolation may erode interpersonal trust in organizations. A global pandemic with lockdown restrictions provided an almost perfect experimental setting that helped us investigate how workplace isolation among remote workers may impact trust in supervisors and coworkers through communication frequency and quality. The findings show that the negative relationship between isolation and trust is primarily established by reduced organizational communication quality and interpersonal information-sharing quality compared to the frequency of communication. Hence, the findings demonstrate that the erosion of interpersonal trust for isolated workers is qualified mainly by the extent to which isolation obstructs high-quality organizational communication and information sharing. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that trust in supervisors is particularly likely to be affected by workplace isolation compared to trust among coworkers.