The direct and indirect impact of impersonal trust on organisational competitiveness

Trust and competitiveness are evergreen research themes. Not only is it important for practitioners to know how to increase their impact, but the interrelationship and interdependence of these two variables are also an inexhaustible area of research. This study aims to demonstrate that impersonal trust and technostress influence organisational competitiveness through engagement and satisfaction. A quantitative research-based questionnaire survey was conducted with Hungarian (1572) and Slovak (660) respondents. Smart PLS4 and SPSS Statistics 22 software were used for the analysis. Results show that impersonal trust has a significant positive relationship with organisational commitment, job satisfaction and competitiveness, while technostress has a negative effect. The results of the research show that the relationships between impersonal trust, satisfaction, commitment and competitiveness do not differ for knowledge-, labour- and capital-intensive organisations. One of the important findings of the study is that the management of organisations should not only focus on cultivating personal relationships. Equally important are the work environment, vision and trustworthiness of leadership, all of which influence the success of an organisation. It has been confirmed that the BSC model’s Learning and Growth Perspective element contributes positively to the value of intellectual capital through the elements we have examined. Similarly, the impact of technostress cannot be ignored by managers of organisations, as continuous technological development is inevitable. The present study took a new approach to investigate the potential for increasing the value of intellectual capital based on an organisational culture built on trust, keeping in mind the influencing effects of impersonal trust and technostress.