Paper #1

Work Engagement During Pandemic: Is Organizational Trust Still Relevant?

Hyder Ali Khawaja and Mustajab Ahmed Soomro

Abstract: In the present study, we tested the relationship between organizational trust and engagement. The study investigated how the three factors of organizational trust including trust in management, trust in supervisor and trust in coworkers can predict work engagement. The study collected data through sampling employees working in the retail food businesses in Sweden via social media. The study applied structural equation modelling on the final sample of 199 to test the three factors of organizational trust and their relationship with work engagement and found significant positive results for all. The study found that employees who expressed trust in the top management resulted in enhancing their work engagement. Furthermore, employees who had trust in their immediate supervisors for their facilitation, support and acknowledgement were also able to boost their engagement. Lastly, trust in coworkers also helped employees to enhance their work well-being, in other words predicting work engagement. The study offers discussion on the findings, implications, and recommendations for future research.

Keywords: Organizational Trust; Management Trust; Supervisor Trust; Coworker Trust; Work Engagement.