Exploring the Performance of and the Citizens’ Trust in Local Government Institutions (LGIs) at the Grassroots: Views from Bangladesh

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Abstract

Considering the dearth of research on the performance of and the citizen’s trust in local government institutions (LGIs) in Bangladesh, this study focuses on Union Parishad (UP)—the lowest tier of LGIs at grassroots. By combining both quantitative and qualitative methods of investigation, primary data through questionnaire survey among service recipients and through key informants’ interviews with service providers have been collected, triangulated and analysed. The study, by evaluating institutional performance of the UPs against several variables, unveils a low level of citizen’s trust in UPs resulting from a low level of satisfaction regarding its performance. While the citizens identify the lack of timeliness, unfair practices and disrespectful behaviour during service delivery among key reasons behind the lack of trust, the institutional actors criticise the lack of institutional autonomy and resources for the poor performance and failures in satisfying local demands at the grassroots.

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Trust and distrust in organizations: emerging perspectives, enduring questions.

R Kramer (1999)

Scholarly interest in the study of trust and distrust in organizations has grown dramatically over the past five years. This interest has been fueled, at least in part, by accumulating evidence that trust has a number of important benefits for organizations and their members. A primary aim of this review is to assess the state of this rapidly growing literature. The review examines recent progress in conceptualizing trust and distrust in organizational theory, and also summarizes evidence regarding the myriad benefits of trust within organizational systems. The review also describes different forms of trust found in organizations, and the antecedent conditions that produce them. Although the benefits of trust are well-documented, creating and sustaining trust is often difficult. Accordingly, the chapter concludes by examining some of the psychological, social, and institutional barriers to the production of trust.