role of trust and collective efficacy among the faculty members at university of isfahan, isfahan university of medical sciences, and isfahan industrial university, iran

introduction: universities and their faculty members are responsible for educating students for social responsibilities. if the faculty members are to contribute to the attainment of university and societal goals, they should trust their dean, colleagues, and students. this will facilitate the collective efficacy of faculty members. if faculty members believe in their collective abilities, the attainment of academic goals becomes feasible. the main objective of this research was to study the relationship between trust and collective efficacy of faculty members in isfahan selective public universities. methods: this was a descriptive-correlation study. from all faculty members of university of isfahan, isfahan university of medical sciences, and isfahan industrial university a sample of 261 subjects was selected through proportional stratified random sampling in 2011. data gathering tools included the standardized questionnaire of organizational trust and a self-administered questionnaire of collective efficacy, which their reliability coefficients were estimated 0.81 and 0.89, respectively. to analyze the collected data, spss software version 16 was utilized and analysis was done through descriptive and inferential statistics including correlation and multiple regression. results: the findings indicated that collective efficacy was affected by faculty members’ trust and its components in all three universities. however, collective efficacy at university of isfahan could be predicted only through trust in students and colleagues. trust in students affected the collective efficacy of isfahan university of medical sciences faculty members, while the collective efficacy of faculty members in isfahan industrial university could be predicted through trust in dean and colleagues. conclusion: collective efficacy of the faculty members may be predicted through trust and its components. it is, therefore, suggested that university chancellors, college deans, and departments chairpersons attempt to create and maintain a space of trust for faculty members. this can be accomplished through encouraging cooperative culture, maintaining coordination among academic departments, and faculty empowerment. these measures would lead to the improvement of university performance in general.