Commitment to Change: Contributions to Trust in the Supervisor and Work Outcomes

There is a lack of empirical evidence on the relationship between commitment to change, trust in organizational authorities, and work outcomes. The purpose of this study is to bring further evidence on the role played by affective and continuance commitment to change on employee's trust in the supervisor and several work outcomes (turnover intentions, organizational citizenship behaviors, and perceived performance). Participants were 221 employees from several organizations that had undergone major organizational changes. Our results suggest that trust in the supervisor fully mediates the relationship between affective commitment to change and the three work outcomes. Continuance commitment to change was not significantly related to any outcome variables. These key findings bring salience to how employee's reactions to specific situations (i.e., relevant organizational changes) contribute to the development of social relationships and work outcomes within the organization. The findings are discussed regarding their considerable implications both for managers and researchers.