Fostering Employee Trust via Effective Supervisory Communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Through the Lens of Motivating Language Theory

Abstract

This study examines how supervisory leadership communication during the COVID-19 pandemic fostered employee trust through the lens of motivating language theory. Drawing insight from self-determination theory, this study also reveals the mediating effects of employees’ psychological need satisfaction for competence and relatedness in this process, which help explain how supervisory leadership communication influences employee trust. Through an online survey of 393 full-time employees from various organizations in the U.S., results showed that supervisory use of meaning-making (0.15), empathetic (0.60), and direction-giving language (0.27) during the pandemic all showed significant positive effects on employee trust toward leadership and the organization directly, and indirectly through satisfying employees’ psychological need for competence and relatedness. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Business Communication Lessons in Agility: Introduction to the Special Issue on the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Transparency and clarity are indispensable to VUCA because ambiguity is a challenge, and gaining internal and external stakeholder trust via verbal and nonverbal empathy is critical to positive outcomes (Coombs, 2014; Dulek et al., 2003). Going further, these results should be empirically measured on a continuing basis (Fuller et al., 2022; Hesselberg, 2018) and include attitudes/behaviors such as trust in organizations and leaders, positive health practices, high employee engagement and motivation, successful organizational voice and silence strategies, and improved psychological well-being and stress management (Bashir et al., 2022; Batova, 2022; Charoensukmongkol & Phungsoonthorn, 2022; Men et al., 2022; Pang et al., 2022).…”

“…And value reflects positive outcomes from agile organizational communication such as trust, work engagement, and psychological well-being. Trust, or stakeholder confidence that an organization and its leaders are competent decision-makers and will take benevolent actions on their behalves (Boies et al., 2015; McAllister, 1995), is robustly and positively linked to such behaviors as performance, creativity, self-efficacy, and resilience (Karatepe et al., 2019; Men et al., 2022).…”

“…These external constituents include the collective and individual sense-making of strategic communication to an organization’s public. Relatedly, internal groups members’ messaging to each other can foster psychological well-being as can leader communications to many and to individuals (Charoensukmongkol & Phungsoonthorn, 2022; Men et al., 2022). In practice, leaders are often perceived as organizational messengers who deeply effect the psychological safety and self-leadership of individuals, valuable employee characteristics in a pandemic context (Mayfield et al., 2021; Men et al., 2022).…”

The Psychological Effects of Digital Companies’ Employees during the Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic Extracted from Online Employee Reviews

“…Lifestyle and stress management items are thought to be related to COVID-19 and various socio-demographic items including occupation or income [38]. Employee involvement, well-being, and support to digital work could even foster digital transformation of the workplace [39]. How the met expectations cause an advantageous effect on the employees as well as the organizations in this COVID-19 pandemic situation [40].…”

The effect of rural superintendent credibility on principal and district outcomes mediated by motivating language

“…Educational researchers have explored the relationship between MLT and school climate (Alqahtani, 2015;Sabir, 2018), organizational commitment (Sabir and Bhutta, 2018), principal retention (Williams, 2017), teacher job satisfaction (Holmes, 2012) and principal job satisfaction (Holmes and Parker, 2019) among other outcomes. Foundationally, MLT is strongly aligned to goal-setting, sense-making and empathy/ empathetic leadership stances (Mayfield and Mayfield, 2018) and quite compatible with transformational leadership (Men et al, 2021) and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory (Mayfield and Mayfield, 2010). When implemented, MLT is the proactive and tactical use of intentional leader talk known as ML (Holmes and Parker, 2017, 2019Mayfield et al, 1995;Sullivan, 1988) to positively influence or modify the beliefs, attitudes and actions of employees and organizations to achieve goals and outcomes.…”