Early work on trust in social science highlighted how the lack of trust between individuals can cause social division, contribute to social stratification, and reduce economic opportunities for people from all social groups. We integrate this work with organizational research on antecedents of trust to generate predictions explaining when and why low employee socioeconomic status (SES) can be a barrier to trust. We discuss how this process can impair the success of both organizations as well as their lower-SES employees. We present a model, and data, suggesting that lower-SES employees will be both more distrusted as well as more distrustful relative to their higher-SES colleagues. This, in turn, locks them out of potentially advantageous social and economic exchanges. Our theory adds precision in detecting when and why lower-SES employees face barriers to success in organizations, as well as provides a blueprint for studying the impact of trust on socially disadvantaged groups in organizations.

关于社会科学的信任的早期工作强调了个人之间缺乏信任会如何导致社会分化，促进社会分层并减少所有社会群体的人们的经济机会。我们将这项工作与对信任先因的组织研究相结合，以产生预测，解释何时以及为什么低的员工社会经济地位（SES）会成为信任的障碍。我们将讨论此过程如何损害两个组织及其低SES员工的成功。我们提供了一个模型和数据，表明相对于高SES员工，低SES员工将更加不信任，也更加不信任。反过来，这使他们无法进行潜在的有利的社会和经济交流。