ABSTRACT
      
      
      Organizational trust has being studied by Management Literature for decades. Based on a concept of "enterprise" as a human organization, the phenomenon of trust is nuclear in daily activity, because it directly affects the interdependence between its members. The achievement of personal and common objectives is directly related to this interpedence (Brocker et al., 1997, Davis et al., 2000, Early, 1986, Podsakoff et al., 1990, Rich, 1997). 
      One of the seminal models of organizational trust is the proposed by Mayer et al. (1995). This model has an universal nature, and it includes the three elements that precede the generation of trust -ability, benevolence and integrity-. The authors recognize the existence of a parallelism between the three antecedents and the three key elements proposed by Aristotle for a good communication. Recent research asserts that the influence of the three antecedents in the generation of trust varies depending on the type of relationship (Knoll, 2008). However, these claims has theorical limitations in the justication of these results.
      Given the consistency that the Mayer et al.?s model (1995) has with Aristotelian ideas, this thesis offers a theoretical explanation based on the study of human action of Aristotle. In particular, taking the Aristotelian distinction between practical rationality (praxis) and instrumental rationality (poiesis) we propose a new parallelism. With this new propose we analyze the influence of the antecedents of Mayer et al.?s model (1995) in superior-subordinates relationships. We suggest some hypotheses that has been contrasted with an empirical study of 163 middle managers.
      The results obtained show the power that the explicit consideration of the practical and instrumental rationality has to explain the different impact of the antecedents of Mayer et al.?s model (1995) in superior-subordinate relationships. But above all, this work will conclude that the 'good intentions' in behavior, is necessary in order to generate organizational trust in any superior-subordinate relationship. This result shows the relevance and the practical implications that the `so what' has above the 'how' to build interdependent relationships.