Abstract: How does social trust affect personnel arrangements within firms? While existing research has explored the relationship between social trust and various corporate behaviors, limited attention has been paid to how social trust impacts employment practices, such as the composition of management teams. By integrating institutional theory and social network theory, this paper proposes that social trust encourages organizations to move away from traditional practices such as nepotism and appoint individuals to management positions who do not have special personal connections. Furthermore, this effect manifests in the “differential mode of association” within the management teams, where, as social trust increases, managers are more likely to come from more distant circles. This effect also varies across stages of organizational development, and the presence of formal institutional systems, such as legal and judicial frameworks, can also partially substitute for the role of social trust. The analysis, using data from Chinese General Social Survey and Chinese Private Enterprise Survey, reveals that social trust increases the proportion of personnel without special relationships in management teams. As social trust rises, firms are more inclined to appoint individuals from more distant circles in the “differential mode of association”. However, this impact of social trust differs depending on the stage of development of the firm. In entrepreneurial firms with more resource constraints, the effect of social trust on reducing nepotism remains limited. Additionally, in regions with more developed formal institutions, the impact of social trust is weakened.

Key words: social trust, management team, personnel appointment, differential mode of association, circles of relationship

摘要： 社会信任如何影响企业内部的人事安排？尽管现有研究提出并验证了社会信任与多种企业行为之间的关系，但针对社会信任如何影响企业层次的用人导向，尤其是管理团队人员构成的研究仍然较少。基于中国本土社会信任情境，结合制度理论和社会网络理论，提出社会信任有助于企业突破“任人唯亲”的用人倾向，从而在管理岗位上更可能任用无特殊关系的人员。这一效应在管理团队中依照“差序格局”发挥作用，即随着社会信任的提高，管理人员更可能来自更外部的关系圈层。企业所处发展阶段的差异会影响该效应的表现，正式制度（如法律、司法制度）也会对社会信任产生替代作用。基于对中国综合社会调查和私营企业调查数据的分析发现：社会信任与管理团队中无特殊关系人员的比例呈正相关，并且社会信任的提高促使企业在管理岗位上任用“差序格局”中更外部关系圈层的人员；社会信任的这种影响在不同发展阶段的企业间存在差异，对于面临更多资源约束的创业企业而言，社会信任对“任人唯亲”的打破作用仍然有限；在法律和司法制度发展水平较高的地区，社会信任的作用被部分替代，其上述效应被削弱。

关键词: 社会信任, 管理团队, 人事安排, 差序格局, 关系圈层