The interrelationships of organizational commitment, trust and participatory decision-making practices in public organizations.

This research study seeks to link empirically organizational commitment, trust and participatory decision making (PDM) practices and test their interrelationships. The research uses the Meyer & Allen (1984) Affective Commitment and Continuance Commitment Scale (ACCS) to measure organizational commitment and develops new scales to measure trust and PDM practices. The study hypothesizes multidimensional components for organizational commitment and trust; statistically significant associations among organizational commitment, trust and PDM practices; and trust as a preceding and intervening variable between PDM practices and organizational commitment. The research uses Pearson correlations, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. The research results support the multidimensionality of organizational commitment and trust; interrelationships among organizational commitment, trust and PDM practices; and the temporal role of trust. However, the research results do not support trust as an intervening variable between PDM practices and organizational commitment. The study concludes with opportunities for future research.