Abstract

Innovation and innovativeness have become critical issues in sustaining competitive advantage, especially in large and mature organizations. Firms can not survive without being able continuously to renew and innovate. Despite the lack of researches on the role of trust in organizational innovativeness, many studies support the assumption that high levels of trust have a positive effect on the effectiveness and quality of organizational knowledge sharing and innovativeness. Hence, this paper aims to analyze the effects of the dimensions of organizational trust on organizational innovativeness in Tehran Oil Refinery Company (TORC). Quantitative analysis is based on a survey of 15 organizational units and 210 respondents within TORC. Research findings imply that the impersonal form in particular, namely institutional trust, has an important role in determining organizational innovativeness.

Key words: Organizational trust, innovativeness, lateral trust, vertical trust, institutional trust.