Uncertainty Reducer, Exchange Deepener, or Self-Determination Enhancer? Feeling Trust Versus Feeling Trusted in Supervisor-Subordinate Relationships

Trust in supervisor and leadership contribute to positive employee outcomes. Employees are also affected by the feeling of being trusted by those supervisors (i.e., felt trust). In order to clarify the theoretical and functional interactions between trust in supervisor and felt trust, we propose and test a moderated mediation model predicting turnover intention and work engagement. Uncertainty management theory, social exchange theory, and self-determination theory underlie the pathways through which trust in supervisor and felt trust have an impact on employee turnover intention and engagement. Surveys were collected from a diverse sample of 208 employees. Tests of moderated mediation were performed using the PROCESS Macro (Hayes, 2012). Trust in supervisor and felt trust interact to reduce turnover intention via a reduction in workplace uncertainty, whereas felt trust increases engagement on the job through a deepening of the social exchange relationship (i.e., felt obligation) and self-determination (i.e., autonomy). Trust in supervisor and felt trust are not interchangeable. Felt trust plays a central role in the motivations of employees on the job, especially those that contribute to greater effort. Our study is the first to provide both theoretical and empirical evidence explaining why trust in supervisor and felt trust predict separate motivational outcomes. The contents of the study should guide future integration of the felt trust construct into models predicting employee attitudes and performance.