The effects of feeling trusted in the workplace: The role of enhanced organizational-based self-esteem on job outcomes

Feeling trusted in the workplace leads to many positive outcomes for both employers and employees. Recent work on felt trust suggests that employees who feel trusted by their manager experience enhanced organizational-based self-esteem, which in turn has been associated with increases both in task performance and work engagement. Our study tests this idea empirically by examining whether organizational-based self-esteem mediates the relationship between (a) felt trust and task performance; and, (b) felt trust and work engagement. We tested these hypotheses using a survey approach with an online panel of 154 full-time employees drawn from the StudyResponse Project. Mediation analyses confirmed that organizational-based self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between felt trust and task performance, as well as the relationship between felt trust and work engagement.