What do we have faith in? – a comparative study on trust and performance appraisal practices in French and German MNE-subsidiaries
通过比较德国（高信任）和法国（低信任）子公司采用美国总部绩效评估系统的差异，揭示了国家层面的信任如何层层传导影响组织和个人层面的绩效评估过程与结果。
We explore how subsidiaries in a high-trust (Germany) and low-trust (France) country adopt the performance appraisal (PA) system from their US-headquarter. In-depth interviews with 30 informants illustrate trickle-down effects of trust from the national level to the organizational and individual levels shaping processes, outputs, and interactions of PA. While German informants expressed trust in the overall PA practice of the US-headquarter, French informants reacted with mistrust to PA manifested in different processes, rater and ratee attitudes, outcomes of PA, as well as the role of HR. We add to the comparative HRM literature by untangling, within an MNE context, the interaction of societal, organizational, and individual trust with the overall PA to provide a more holistic explanation for cross-national variations in PA beyond the mere assignment to separate cultural categories.