What’s Trust Got to Do with It? Examining Trust in Leadership, Psychological Capital, and Employee Wellbeing in a Cross-National Context During COVID-19

We propose and test the idea that trust in the senior leadership team is needed to help overcome the potential widespread decrements to employee wellbeing 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 wellbeing. 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 wellbeing during crises.