What's trust got to do with it? Examining trust in leadership, psychological capital, and employee well-being in a cross-national context during Covid-19

Babu, N ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3301-9472, Fletcher, L ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7238-3480, Pichler, S and Budhwar, P (2024) What's trust got to do with it? Examining trust in leadership, psychological capital, and employee well-being in a cross-national context during Covid-19. European Management Review, 21 (1). pp. 31-44. ISSN 1740-4754

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Abstract

We propose and test the idea that trust in the senior leadership team is needed to help overcome the potential widespread decrements to employee well-being resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we suggest that psychological capital mediates the relationship between trust in the senior leadership team's response to Covid-19 and employee well-being. We also examine the contextual relevance of line management's servant leadership alongside country differences (i.e., India vs. UK) in reinforcing the importance of trust in fostering psychological capital. We test our model in a time-lagged survey study that follows employed individuals towards the early, middle, and later stages of the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. Results provide support for our model and indicate potential country differences. Our findings point to the significance of leadership, both at the senior level and at the line management level, in protecting employee well-being during crises.