Public trust and organizational learning in academic institutions in Poland

It is widely known that the possibility of common learning increases the probability of high collaborative performance. In contemporary knowledge generation, one of the main organizational factors which has a significant impact on collaborative processes is trust. Particularly, it is organizational trust that significantly influences the organizational knowledge-sharing environment. The influence of the multidimensional nature of trust on the learning processes and knowledge exchange depends on the area of an organization’s activity, which in this chapter is assumed to be the search for the relations between organizational trust and studying in higher schools. The achievement of this research goal is based on desk research and a diagnostic survey. The considerations are concentrated on the theoretical outline of trust, organizational learning and knowledge management, including public trust and organizational learning as tools of managing academic institutions. The provided analysis covers identification of communication forms, evaluation of the level of studying and knowledge sharing, impact of trust on inter-organizational learning and knowledge creation, as well as opinions on the general level of trust in higher education institutions. As a result, the conducted research enabled identifying the levels of organizational trust and learning, and specifying the relations between them. This chapter is devoted to the issue of building and maintaining trust in academic institutions, as illustrated by the example of Poland. In this chapter, the theoretical outlines of trust and organizational learning as tools of managing academic institutions are presented. A questionnaire research allowed us to evaluate of the impact of trust on interorganizational learning and knowledge creation, as well as opinions on the general level of trust in higher education institutions. The conducted research enabled us to identify the levels of organizational trust and learning and specify the relationships between them. The chapter illustrates how public trust is built and sustained in a setting such as organizational learning in academic institutions.