Trust as a Soft Component of Management

The purpose of this article is to point to an increase in the role and significance of trust as a soft component of management in increasing the competitiveness of an enterprise. What is of particular importance is the combination of soft factors, such as knowledge, intellectual capital, culture or trust and the creation and development of cross-organisational relations networks. I shall show that soft factors are increasingly becoming the content of cross-organisational networks and vice-versa, the need for their growth in order to ensure proper functioning of an organisation promotes the development of cross-organisational management. Soft factors of management, including trust, can be measured in various ways. Surveys with Likert scale or a grading scale (e.g. from 1 to 5) as well as others are among the most frequently used methods.