Dyadic Trust Between Superior And Subordinates In Organizations:Antecedents And Outcomes

The effect of trust between subordinates and superiors on work outcomes has already been indicated by numerous studies. However, the two directions of trust and its mechanism are not clear yet. This study used a new perspective of subordinates’ sense of being trusted instead of superiors’ trust in them. Subordinates’ sense of being trusted is the trust that they perceived from their superiors, which may be a more critical aspect to their mental and behavioral changes. Moreover, Subordinates’ sense of being trusted and their trust in superiors are two types of trusts that may have different effects on work outcomes. This study focused the two directions of trust on every individual in organization. The paper explored the trust relationship between subordinates’ sense of being trusted by superiors and their trust in superiors in organization. The primary aim is to reveal the mechanism that how the dyadic trust affects subordinates’ mental and behavioral changes, and the possible mediating effects of psychological safety, gratitude and psychological empowerment.Data was obtained from737full-time employees in North China through questionnaire and analyzed by SEM. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the measurement had good reliability and validity. The statistical package of Amos16.0was used to examine the hypotheses.A hypotheses model was set accordingly. In the first stage of data analysis, the research tested the hypotheses the relationship between subordinates’ sense of being trusted and their trust in superiors. In order to provide a stringent examination of the hypotheses, an alternative model was established. By comparing the alternative model with the hypotheses model, the result indicated that subordinates’ sense of being trusted related positively to trust in superiors. The more trust subordinates perceived from their superior, the more they trust in their superior. In the second stage of data analysis, the antecedent of the dyadic trust was examined. Following the same logic employed in the first stage, two alternative models were constructed for comparisons. Results supported that the two directions of trust were both affected by trustworthiness of superiors. Then, the study explored the mediating role of psychological safety, gratitude and psychological empowerment between the dyadic trust and outcomes. It was revealed that effect of trust in superiors on subordinates’ job performance and satisfaction is mediated by psychological safety. Results also supported gratitude and psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between subordinates’ sense of being trusted and their satisfaction. In addition, the psychological empowerment also mediated the effect of subordinates’ sense of being trusted on their job performance. The present study contributes to our understanding of the relationship between the dyadic trust and employees’ outcomes. The theoretical implication of this research is that it starts a new perspective of investigating the trust between superiors and subordinates. As for the practical implication, the results of this study showed that the two directions of trust are an interactive system, which have different influence on employees’ psychology and behavior. It provided evidence for managers to give more trust to their employees, which will play a big role in individual and organizational development.