One area of research that has been neglected in the literature is how managers adjust to foreign practices as reflected in their trust towards employees. In China, two common forms of business enterprises are international joint ventures (IJVs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) both of which comprise different managerial milieux. Little is known about how managers who have transitioned from SOEs to IJVs manage this change, and to what extent their behaviour is different to those in SOEs. Given that IJV managers are facing uncertainty and flux in their environments arising from a clash of Chinese and Western management practices, their trusting behaviour is likely to be different from those in SOEs. This paper provides empirical evidence on how the beliefs about trust in subordinates compare between Chinese managers in IJVs and those in SOEs. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are outlined in terms of key findings on trust as well as areas for future study.