Middle managers' trust in supervisors and turnover intention during organizational socialization period

  • Ho Wong

    Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

    Abstract

    Empirical studies have shown that employees' trust in their direct supervisors has a negative correlation with voluntary employee turnover. This thesis examines this effect among new managers in organizations. I propose a model in which trust in direct supervisors influences new managers' turnover intention during the organizational socialization period. Drawing on attachment theory and person-environment correspondence theory, I predict that job insecurity and person-organization fit are the key mechanisms through which cognition-based and affect-based trust in supervisors affect new managers' voluntary turnover. A three-phase longitudinal quantitative research is proposed to test the research model. The results from 162 participants in Hong Kong support the model, showing that job insecurity and person-organization fit mediate the relationship between trust in supervisors and turnover intention. In addition, the organizational socialization period and middle manager stage moderate the relationship between trust in supervisors and person-organization fit. The implications of the findings for future research and management practice are also discussed

    Date of Award26 Nov 2020
    Original languageEnglish
    SupervisorGuohua Emily HUANG (Supervisor)

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Labor turnover
    • Communication in organizations
    • Organizational sociology

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