The primary purpose of the study was to identify the effective school leadership behaviors that build trust with teachers, as perceived by teachers on selected campuses in the North East Independent School District. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine whether demographic variables, such as gender, experience, and level of teaching, influence the relationship between teacher trust and effective school leadership. Of the 3,974 teachers in the district, 457 teachers were surveyed from one high, two middle, and four elementary schools. Findings in the study include the following: 1. The behaviors that had mean scores reflecting ratings closest to being critically important to building teacher trust were that the principal maintains confidentiality (4.76), is a good listener (4.73), gathers sufficient information before drawing a conclusion (4.61), reacts calmly in a crisis (4.59), and communicates clear expectations (4.55). 2. The Administrator Rating Form, developed by Ferris (1994), divided all the behaviors into three categories: (a) general professional, (b) personal authenticity, and (c) supervision/evaluation behaviors. The supervision/ evaluation behaviors were the least important of the three groups with a mean score of 4.14. This concludes that the general professional and authenticity behaviors result in building more trust than the supervision/evaluation behaviors. 3. It was determined that females show higher levels of trust in their administrators than that of their male counterparts. The teachers’ number of years of experience had no effect on how they responded. Within the category of general professional behaviors of the principal, there was no significant difference in the responses of the three teaching levels. Within the other two categories, however, there was a significant difference in the responses of the three teaching levels. The following recommendations are based on the findings and conclusions: 1. The principal must maintain confidentiality and be a good listener. 2. Principals should establish a professionally personal relationship with each teacher. 3. Principals should be aware that: (a) male teachers are less trusting than female teachers, (b) teachers’ years of experience has no bearing on building trust, and (c) elementary teachers are generally more trusting than secondary teachers.

The objective of this study is to investigate the concept of trustworthiness and then examine its effect within the venue of the hotel sector. Given trustworthiness accepted importance to relationship marketing, there appears to be a failure to develop a coherent framework to indicate trustworthiness. This is a gap that this thesis addresses and by doing so, it will extend the body of knowledge by contributing to our understanding of the construct and its determinants. The main hypothesis in this thesis is identifying the determinants of trustworthiness with an outcome as part of a causal model. Within the proposed model, the determinants; consistency, competence, integrity, benevolence, value alignment and communication are assumed to have a positive impact on trustworthiness. In turn, trustworthiness has a positive impact on both attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty, the two types of loyalty are proposed as the model outcome, whereas the previous six determinants are proposed as antecedents of trustworthiness. In order to test the proposed hypotheses, a new measurement scale was developed in order to evaluate trustworthiness with its determinants and outcome, the model was tested within the hotel sector in Jordan where over 526 respondents took part in the main survey collection, 60 respondents participated in the pilot study along with 11 interviewees. The results from the empirical study revealed that the hypothesised model is valid and significant, in which all the antecedents of trustworthiness had a significant loading as well as the model corollaries. These loadings vary in its significance and strength; this created a clearer picture on the expected impact of each of these determinants once the model being applied within service organisations.

Numerous experiments have shown that an evaluative and passive process, known as validation, accompanies activation and integration, which are fundamental processes of text comprehension. During the construction of a mental model, validation implicitly assesses the plausibility of incoming information by checking its consistency with world knowledge, prior beliefs, and contextual information (e.g., the broader discourse context). However, research on potential influences that shape validation processes has just started. One branch of research is investigating how world knowledge and contextual information contribute to integration and validation. World knowledge usually influences validation more strongly because information plausibility is the primary criterion for validation, but strong contextual information can yield influences as well. Contextual information that may be specifically relevant for routine validation is the credibility of a source providing text information. Source credibility bears a strong conceptual relationship to the validity of information. However, a dearth of research has investigated joint effects of plausibility and source credibility for routine validation. To fill this research gap, the aim of the present dissertation was to examine the role of source credibility in routine validation processes of text information. This dissertation argues that both source credibility and plausibility are considered in these processes. In particular, information plausibility is proposed as the primary criterion, but source credibility may modulate validation as an additional criterion. To this end, three studies with five self-paced reading experiments were conducted in which reading times served as an implicit indicator of validation and plausibility judgments as an explicit indicator, and the convergence or divergence between the two indicators was interpreted. The first study examined the interplay of plausibility and source credibility for the validation of world-knowledge consistent versus inconsistent text information embedded in short narratives. This highly plausible or highly implausible information was provided by a high- or low-expertise source. In Study 1, plausibility dominated validation as suggested by faster reading times and higher plausibility judgments for world-knowledge consistent information. Importantly, source credibility modulated the validation of highly implausible information but seemed to not matter for plausible information. High-credible sources increased the implausibility of highly implausible information to a greater extent compared with low-credible sources as indicated by longer reading times and lower plausibility judgments. These results diverged from recent findings from Foy et al. (2017). The second study investigated whether the modulating role of source credibility depends on the degree of implausibility of an information. Thus, Study 2 extended Study 1 by an intermediate, somewhat implausible level of plausibility (comparable to the implausible claims in Foy et al., 2017). Similar to Study 1, plausibility dominated validation as indicated by lower reading times and plausibility judgments with higher world-knowledge inconsistency. Again, source credibility had no effect on the routine validation of plausible information. However, high-credible sources mitigated the implausibility of somewhat implausible information as indicated by faster reading times and higher plausibility judgments but exacerbated the implausibility of highly implausible information as indicated by slower reading times and lower plausibility judgments. In short, Study 2 findings not only integrates the seemingly divergent results of Study 1 and Foy et al. (2017) but also provides strong support for the assumption that the degree of implausibility determines the modulating role of source credibility for validation. The third study examined the relationship of source credibility and plausibility in an ecologically valid social media setting with short Twitter messages varying in world-knowledge and text-belief consistency by trustworthy and untrustworthy sources. In sum, plausibility and to a lesser extent source credibility mattered for routine validation and explicit evaluation of text information as indicated by reading times and plausibility judgments. However, the pattern partly diverged from Study 1 and 2, possibly because the source information was more salient. In sum, the present dissertation yielded three insights. First, the findings further extends evidence for routine validation based on world-knowledge and prior beliefs. Second, the studies suggest that source credibility can modulate validation. Readers used source credibility cues for routine validation and the explicit evaluation of text information in all studies. Third, the impact of source credibility seems to depend on the degree of implausibility of information. The present findings have theoretical implications for theories of validation and text comprehension as well as practical implications for targeting threats associated with the prevalence of inaccurate information, for example, on the World Wide Web. Future research using eye-tracking methodology could further disentangle the routine and strategic underlying processes of the relationship between source credibility and plausibility. / Zahlreiche empirische Untersuchungen konnten zeigen, dass ein passiver und evaluativer Prozess – genannt Validierung – die Aktivierung und Integration von Textinformationen mit leserseitigem Vorwissen und Überzeugungen als grundlegende Prozesse des Textverstehens begleitet. Während der Konstruktion des Situationsmodells erfassen Validierungsprozesse fortlaufend und implizit die Plausibilität einer eingehenden Information, indem sie die Konsistenz mit leserseitigem Vorwissen und Überzeugungen sowie mit Kontextinformationen (z. B. vorherige Textinformationen) überprüfen. Die Erforschung weiterer Einflussgrößen für die Validierung hat jedoch gerade erst begonnen. Ein Forschungszweig beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie sich Kontextinformationen und Vorwissen in ihrem Beitrag zu Integrations- und Validierungsprozessen unterscheiden. Ein Befund dabei ist, dass das Vorwissen häufig einen stärkeren Einfluss auf die Validierungsprozesse hat und folglich die Informationsplausibilität das primäre Kriterium für die Validierung von Textinformationen ist. Starke Kontextinformationen können jedoch ebenfalls für die Bewertung von eingehenden Informationen herangezogen werden. Eine spezifische Kontextinformation, die eine konzeptuelle Verbindung zu der Validität einer Information hat und daher eine besondere Relevanz für die Validierung von Textinformationen besitzt, ist die Glaubwürdigkeit der Quelle, die eine Textinformation liefert. Es gibt jedoch nur vereinzelte Studien, die das interaktive Zusammenspiel der Informationsplausibilität und Quellenglaubwürdigkeit für die Validierung von Textinformationen untersucht haben. Die vorliegende Dissertation setzt an dieser Lücke an und untersucht die Rolle der Quellenglaubwürdigkeit für die routinierte Validierung von Textinformationen. Dabei wird angenommen, dass sowohl die Plausibilität als auch die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit in diesen Prozessen berücksichtigt werden. Die Plausibilität einer Information sollte hierbei das primäre Kriterium sein, das zur Validierung herangezogen wird, aber die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit sollte als zusätzliches Kriterium genutzt werden und die Prozesse potentiell zu modulieren. Zur Überprüfung dieser Annahmen wurden drei Lesezeitstudien mit insgesamt fünf Experimenten durchgeführt. Ob implizite und explizite Maße konvergieren oder divergieren ist aufschlussreich für die Untersuchung der Prozesse des Textverstehens. Daher dienten die Lesezeit als implizites Maß für Validierungsprozesse und die Beurteilung der Plausibilität einer Textinformation als explizites Maß in allen Studien. Die erste Studie untersuchte die Beziehung von Plausibilität und Quellenglaubwürdigkeit bei der Validierung von Textinformationen, die konsistent (plausibel) oder inkonsistent (stark unplausibel) mit dem Vorwissen waren. Diese Textinformationen waren eingebettet in kurzen Geschichten und wurden von einer Quelle mit viel bzw. wenig Expertise hinsichtlich des angesprochenen Wissensbereichs geäußert. In Studie 1 führten plausible Textinformationen zu kürzeren Lesezeiten und höheren Plausibilitätsurteilen als stark unplausible Textinformationen. Für plausible Informationen schien die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit keine Rolle zu spielen, jedoch führten glaubwürdige Quellen zu höheren Lesezeiten und niedrigeren Plausibilitätsurteilen bei stark unplausiblen Informationen. Studie 1 legt nahe, dass die Konsistenz mit dem Vorwissen das Hauptkriterium für die Validierung war und die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit als zusätzliches Kriterium die Validierung unplausibler Informationen modulieren kann, jedoch in der Wirkrichtung scheinbar abweichend zu aktuellen Befunden ist (Foy et al., 2017). Die zweite Studie untersuchte, ob die in Studie 1 gefundene, modulierende Rolle der Quellenglaubwürdigkeit für Validierungsprozesse vom Grad der Unplausibilität einer Information abhängt. Hierzu wurden die Konzeption und die Materialien der ersten Studie um eine mittlere Plausibilitätsstufe, die als „etwas unplausibel“ bezeichnet werden kann, erweitert; sonst waren die Studien sehr ähnlich. In Studie 2 zeigte sich ein dreigestufter Plausibilitätseffekt abhängig von der Konsistenz mit dem Vorwissen. Plausible Textinformationen wurden schneller gelesen und als plausibler beurteilt als etwas unplausible Informationen. Diese wiederum wurden schneller gelesen und als plausibler eingeschätzt als stark unplausible Informationen. Erneut wurde die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit während des Lesens plausibler Informationen nicht berücksichtigt, modulierte aber die Validierung unplausibler Informationen. Glaubwürdige Quellen verglichen mit unglaubwürdigen Quellen führten zu kürzeren Lesezeiten und einer höher eingeschätzten Plausibilität für etwas unplausible Informationen, aber verlängerten die Lesezeiten und verringerten die Plausibilitätsurteile stark unplausibler Informationen – letzteres war identisch mit dem Ergebnis von Studie 1. Studie 2 zeigt, dass die Plausibilität einer Information das Hauptkriterium für wissensbasierte Validierungsprozesse war. Wenn Informationen einen gewissen Grad an Unplausibilität erreichen, können glaubwürdige Quellen die Plausibilität eigentlich unplausibler Informationen erhöhen oder sogar weiter verringern. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 2 belegen die Annahme, dass der Grad der Unplausibilität einer Information die modulierende Rolle der Glaubwürdigkeit einer Quelle bestimmt und darüber hinaus werden die Befunde von Studie 1 und Foy et al. (2017) integriert. Die dritte Studie untersuchte die Beziehung von Plausibilität und Quellenglaubwürdigkeit eingebettet in einem sozialen Medium mit kurzen Twitter-Nachrichten als ein ökologisch valider Kontext. Die Nachrichten unterschieden sich in der vom Text vermittelten Überzeugung und der Vorwissenskonsistenz. Diese Nachrichten wurden präsentiert von stark und wenig vertrauenswürdigen Quellen. Zusammenfassend zeigen Lesezeiten und Plausibilitätsurteile, dass die Informationsplausibilität und in einem geringeren Maße die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit für die routinierte Validierung und explizite Bewertung der Textinformationen von Bedeutung waren, aber mit einem teilweise abweichenden Muster zu Studie 1 und 2. Eine mögliche Erklärung könnte in den stark salienten Quelleninformationen in Studie 3 liegen. Zusammengefasst hat die vorliegende Dissertation drei Erkenntnisse erbracht. Erstens, die Befundlage für routinierte Validierungsprozesse basierend auf der Plausibilität einer Information wurde erweitert. Zweitens, die Studien legen nahe, dass die Glaubwürdigkeit einer Quelle dabei auch eine Rolle spielt: in allen Studien nutzten die Leserinnen und Leser die Quellenglaubwürdigkeit als zusätzlichen Hinweis zur Validierung und zur expliziten Plausibilitätsbewertung von Textinformationen. Drittens, die Stärke und die Richtung des Einflusses der Quellenglaubwürdigkeit für die wissensbasierte Validierung von Textinformationen scheint vom Grad der Unplausibilität einer Information abzuhängen. Diese Ergebnisse erlauben Schlussfolgerungen für Theorien der Validierung und des Textverstehens sowie praktische Implikationen für die Bekämpfung von möglichen Folgen, die mit der Verbreitung von Falschinformationen verbunden sind. Zukünftige Experimente basierend auf Blickbewegungen könnten helfen die routinierten und strategischen Prozesse genauer zu trennen, die die Beziehung von Quellenglaubwürdigkeit und Plausibilität für die Validierung bestimmen.

Internationalisation of Higher Education has emerged as a response from institutions to increasing challenges posed by Globalisation and fast advances in Information and Communication Technologies - ICTs. MBA students, particularly those in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), are now presented with a growing offer of Programmes with some level of Internationalisation. This research investigates and assesses the extent to which different levels of Internationalisation in Higher Education MBA Programmes influence Brazilian students’ and HR Professionals’ Perceived Value of such programmes and institutions and thus, their Level of Trustworthiness towards said programmes and institutions. To investigate the relationship between the Level of Internationalisation and Perceived Value, a Trustworthiness Index was developed for the Higher Education sector. Developed from a tested Trustworthiness Index originally designed by Ennew and Sekhon (2007) for the Financial Sector, this study used an adapted Delphi technique to reach consensus between 3 Higher Education Senior Executives and 3 Marketing Scholars. The new Questionnaire had 363 responses from MBA students who were presented with different levels of Programme and Institution Internationalisation divided into 4 Bundles - from no (zero) Internationalisation to 100% Internationalisation. The findings indicate that the proposed Index is a reliable and valid instrument to measure MBA Students’ Level of Trustworthiness towards MBA Programmes and Institutions, with an excellent Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for reliability (above .9). The variables were then grouped into four Factors using Exploratory Factor Analysis. Thus, the underlying dimensions of Trustworthiness in Higher Education that emerged are Student Support and Quality; Values and Respect; Excellence and Academic Rigour; Diversity and Long-Term Commitment. A Trustworthiness Equation for Higher Education was developed using Structural Equation Modelling and applied to the four different Bundles. Each Bundle’s Level of Trustworthiness was then compared and the results, using ANOVA, show a positive relation between the Level of Internationalisation and the Level of Programme and Institution Trustworthiness. The findings of the quantitative stage with the MBA students were then discussed in semi-structured interviews with 13 Human Resources Professionals. MBA students and HR Professionals agree that Internationalisation in Higher Education increases the perceived value of both programmes and institutions. In the students’ opinion the best model would be a Programme with 100% Internationalisation, while HR Professionals believe the local experience equally matters, and therefore, the best choice would be a programme that offered an Intermediate Level of Internationalisation. This thesis also explores the valuable input that this research provides to Higher Education managers in what concerns students’ perceived value of several course components such as curriculum and syllabus design, instructional materials and resources, face-to-face and distance learning modes, teacher and staff qualification and preparation, amongst others.

This study endeavours to conceptualise the corporate trust construct and its relationship with corporate reputation more holistically, to address the current perceived lack of conceptual clarity of the relationship between these two constructs. The key premise of this study is that a for-profit organisation’s ability to generate sustainable wealth over time and ensure its own long-term economic sustainability is related to its relationship with its entire stakeholder network. Since an organisation is dependent on its stakeholders’ approval, commitment and supportive behaviour, it is important to understand what influences and drives their perceptions and assessment of an organisation, and their decision to support it. This highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between corporate reputation and corporate trust. For this purpose this researcher has developed a conceptual model founded on basic, theoretical research, with the aim of clarifying current and existing theory and providing a new theoretical perspective. A conceptual model is a simplified and systematic representation of reality, which is made explicit in some abstract form. The descriptive and explicative properties of a model delineate the complex elements of the system more clearly, which fosters systematic thinking and enhances understanding. The model developed as the result of this study suggests an inverse direction to the generally accepted view in current literature of the relationship between corporate trust and corporate reputation. Where trust is usually regarded as an attribute or antecedent of corporate reputation, this study has conceptualised trust as an outcome of corporate reputation and as the more comprehensive construct in the relationship. Corporate reputation has been conceptualised as being merely a means to an end – to earn stakeholders’ trust and thus their commitment and continued support – and not as an end in itself. Trustworthiness, and not trust, has been identified as the key driver of corporate reputation. Seven key areas in which an organisation should display its trustworthiness have been identified. These are proposed as the new antecedents of corporate reputation in order to build a reputation that will lead to stakeholders’ trust and support. Finally, recommendations have been made and the areas requiring further research have been identified. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Marketing Management / PhD / Unrestricted

The business is a part of our everyday life. With the advent of information technology and networks, especially the Internet, the communication with a tradesman substantially changed. The customer is no longer in direct contact with the seller and there is a question of trust, whether or not the transaction realized. It is also the essence of this work. It aims primarily to identify particular factors of trust and trustworthiness in electronic commerce. Among its other aims belong the illustration of these factors in practice to existing shop and also make up a kind of manual for the creation of e-shop, which will give the customer the feeling of the biggest trust. The study is divided into three parts. The first of them is theoretical and describes the results of foreign studies that have been made in connection with the trust on the Internet. In the second part is outlined a brief look at home market, Czech, through available documents and a questionnaire investigation. And the last part is practical. Part of it is a look at particular factors of trust in the existing e-shop and a procedure for creating a new e-commerce with the use of gained knowledge. Master's thesis may, in practice, serve customers who use it in determining the trustworthiness of the tradesman. Also in this study may incipient tradesman find facts that can help them to create and running of a trusted e-commerce.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate auditors' judgments and decisions in the presence of an explicitly stated client preference. This investigation considers two factors. First, the temporal placement (i.e., timing) of the client preference is varied to allow for an examination of differential effects associated with the receipt of an early client preference and a late client preference. Second, client trustworthiness is varied so that participants may have a basis upon which to evaluate the client's representations (i.e., preferences). Practicing auditors, who were either managers or senior managers at a national accounting firm, participated in the study by completing two audit tasks in which the two factors were manipulated. Findings indicate that explicitly stated client preferences resulted in significantly different decision processes, but did not significantly influence auditors' judgment processes. However, further analysis indicated that there was no significant client preference (CP) effect observed for auditors' final decisions. Therefore, it appears that the influence of the client's preference was transitory. Taken together, these findings suggest that the CP did not result in a loss of auditors' objectivity. Auditors' judgments and decisions were sensitive to the client's relative trustworthiness. This finding suggests that auditors are responsive to a client's credibility when evaluating the client's representations. This result is expected given since generally accepted auditing standards require auditors to consider a source's credibility. However, it is surprising that auditors' evidence evaluation efforts were not differentially sensitive to the client's trustworthiness. Such a finding may indicate that the participating auditors' evidence evaluation efforts are more influenced by firm policy than individual judgment. / Ph. D.

To enable sports associations to grow and effectively interact with their members with- out increasing the administrative workload significantly, an e-membership web application can be used. For this web application to be efficient and adopted by the members of the association, it needs to be useful, easy to navigate, and trustworthy for both the members and the administrators of the association. In this study, a web application was developed and tested in close collaboration with Linköpings Atletklubb to fulfill the previously men- tioned requirements. The study found that logical functionality affects usability, clarity of links and labels, such as menu options, affects navigability, and correct information and professional design contribute to trustworthiness in a positive manner.

The electric power grid forms the foundation for several other critical infrastructures of national importance such as public health, transportation and telecommunication systems, to thrive. The current power grid runs on the century-old technology and faces serious challenges of the 21st century - Ever-increasing demand and the need to provide a sustainable way to meet the growing demand, increased requirement of resilience against man-made and natural disasters, ability to defend against cyber attacks, increasing demand for reliable power, requirement to integrate with alternate energy generation and storage technologies. Several countries, including the United States, have realized the immediate need to modernize the grid and to pursue the goal of a smart grid. Majority of recent grid modernization efforts are directed towards the distribution systems to be able to meet these new challenges. One of the key enablers of a fully functional Smart Grid are microgrids — subsystems of the grid, utilizing small generation capacities at the distribution system level to increase the overall reliability and power quality of the local grid. It is one of the key directions recommended by national electric delivery technologies roadmap in United States as well as policy makers for electricity delivery in many countries. Microgrids have witnessed serious research activity in the past few years, especially in areas such as multi-agent system (MAS) architectures for microgrid control and auction algorithms for microgrid electricity transaction. However, most of the prior research on electricity transaction in microgrids fails to recognize and represent the true nature of the microgrid electricity market. In this research, a comprehensive microgrid electricity market has been designed, taking into account several unique characteristics of this new market place. This thesis establishes an economic rationale to the vision of wide-scale deployment of microgrids serving residential communities in near future and develops a comprehensive understanding of microgrid electricity market. A novel concept of Community Microgrids is introduced and the market and business models for electricity transaction are proposed and validated based on economic forecasts of key drivers of distributed generation. The most important contribution of this research deals with establishing a need for a trustworthy model framework for microgrid market and introducing the concept of reputation score to market participants. A framework of day-ahead energy market (DAEM) for electricity transaction, incorporating an approach of using the reputation score to incentivize the sellers in the market to be trustworthy, has been designed and implemented in MATLAB with a graphical user interface (GUI). Current implementation demonstrates a market place with two sellers and nine buyers and is easily scalable to support multiple market participants. The proposed microgrid electricity market may spur the deployment of residential microgrids, incorporating distributed generation, thereby making significant contribution to increase the overall reliability and power quality of the local grid. / Master of Science

Problem definition: Along with a rapid growth of Internet usage new forms of communication and marketing have occurred. Influencer marketing have become a popular marketing form, but are brand’s aware of the risk it involves when collaborating with an influencer? This thesis examines how a brand’s trustworthiness can be affected by an influencer’s wrongdoing, in the perception of the critical generation - Generation Z. Purpose: Since Generation Z are a digital and critical generation who rely on influencers recommendations, but also value trustworthiness and transparency from a brand, we want to explore how Generation Z’s perceived trustworthiness of a brand change when an influencer connected to a brand makes a wrongdoing. Research question: This thesis consist of two research questions.  RQ1: Can there be a relationship between an influencers trustworthiness and a brand’s trustworthiness in Generation Z’s perception?    RQ2: How does an Influencers wrongdoing spill over on Generation Z’s perception of a brand’s trustworthiness depending on the brands reaction?  Methodology: The study is based on a quantitative method with a deductive approach. The empirical data was collected through a online survey that was answered by 148 respondents. The data were then analyzed through SPSS. Hypotheses developed from the research questions were then accepted or rejected.  Conclusion: The study resulted in that there is a weak relationship between Generation Z’s perception of an influencer’s trustworthiness and a brand’s trustworthiness. Furthermore, the findings from the survey resulted in that there is a negative spillover effect on brand’s trustworthiness regardless on how they act on an influencer’s wrongdoing.