Trust in Leader as a Psychological Factor on Employee and Organizational Outcome

Abstract

While leadership studies have tackled the concept in various ways, it can be said that often basic psychological elements are overlooked. In this sense, the notion of trust is focused in this chapter to highlight, elaborate, and provide a thorough understanding on the vitality of trust between leader and his/her followers. Whether a business achieves success or not is highly dependent on leadership of the firm. Mutual trust among staff and their managers is a crucial matter that can hinder or enhance the process of success. With the existence of trust, workplace and environment of company become soothing for individuals, leading to positive psychological outcomes, and improved wellbeing. Therefore, we argue that building, and gaining trust should be the focus of leaders regardless of their style for it will improve performance, and thus, organizational outcome while simultaneously benefiting the staff via psychological elements. This becomes more vivid in modern business world as wellbeing of individuals and their mental health are more emphasized. Both leaders and scholars can benefit from this manuscript.

Empowering leadership and job satisfaction of academic staff in Palestinian universities: Implications of leader-member exchange and trust in leader

“…Therefore, it can be interpreted that the trust in leader can better explain the relationship between leader's behavior (i.e., empowering), and employees' psychological outcomes toward work (i.e., job satisfaction). As a vital psychological element, trust plays a major role in organizational settings and thus, its importance cannot be neglected (Mineo, 2014;Siachou et al, 2020;Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021). A leader who uses empowerment as the core approach and takes responsibility in action to provide care for mental wellbeing of their staff can exhibit behaviors that trigger trust especially within an academic setting (Rehman et al, 2021;Haider et al, 2022).…”

“…When employees perceive connectedness with their leaders, they are more likely to exhibit trust ( Atik and Celik, 2020 ) and feel emotional attachments. This is embedded within the premises of SET as leaders can influence emotions of followers via positive, ethical, and effective communications that promotes reciprocation and trustworthiness ( Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021 ; Zhou et al, 2021 ). Importantly, when employees have “good” exchanges with their leaders, they are prone to be more engaged and involved with their jobs, which can have positive outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction; Atik and Celik, 2020 ; Martono et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Therefore, these leaders are found to be a good fit for the academic setting management (e.g., Amundsen and Martinsen, 2015 ; Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021 ; Jia et al, 2022 ). Within the context of this study, it is important to note that empowering leaders can boost trust ( Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021 ) among their staff due to their behavior, and motivational approach that encourages positive exchange and interactions. This lies within the premises of leader-member exchange (LMX; Zhou et al, 2021 ), and its moderating impact on job satisfaction of university teachers is under examination in this research.…”

“…This is due to the fact that such leaders can empower their followers from sociocultural (practices, interventions, and tactics for empowerment) and psychological aspects [self-determination, meaning, competence, and influence (Amundsen and Martinsen, 2015)]. Therefore, these leaders are found to be a good fit for the academic setting management (e.g., Amundsen and Martinsen, 2015;Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021;Jia et al, 2022). Within the context of this study, it is important to note that empowering leaders can boost trust (Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021) among their staff due to their behavior, and motivational approach that encourages positive exchange and interactions.…”

“…Similarly, adequate leadership style in academic setting can foster trust-building, which is highly effective in determining the work outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction). Scholars have abundantly reported the positive impacts of empowering leaders on various employee and organizational outcomes including and not limited to, job satisfaction ( Atik and Celik, 2020 ), trust ( Farmanesh and Zargar, 2021 ), engagement ( Helland et al, 2020 ), motivation ( Muijs and Harris, 2003 ), commitment ( Limon, 2022 ), and extra-role behaviors (e.g., organizational citizenship behavior; Bogler and Anit, 2004 ). Such effects are highly influential in shaping individuals’ careers in long-term as they provide the necessary atmosphere for growth and development ( Zhou et al, 2021 ).…”