Abstract
Institutional trust plays a crucial role when a nation is facing mega crises (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) and has implications for employee work experiences and well-being. To date, researchers largely consider how institutional trust or trust in government may predict variables of interest in isolation. However, this variable-centered perspective ignores the possibility that there are subpopulations of employees who may differ in their trust in different institutions (i.e., the state government, the federal government). To address this, we examined institutional trust with two foci (i.e., trust in state government and trust in federal government) from a person-centered perspective. Using latent profile analysis and data from 492 U.S.-based employees, we identified five trust profiles: high trustors, federal trustors, state trustors, the ambivalent, and distrusters, and found that these profiles differentially predicted attitudes towards and behavioral compliance with CDC recommended COVID-19 prevention practices, job insecurity, affective commitment, helping behavior, and psychological well-being.
Highlights
Adopting a person-centered approach to investigate trust-in-government profiles, we identified the existence of five distinct trustor profiles, or subpopulations: high trustors, federal trustors, state trustors, the ambivalent, and distrusters
These profiles were associated with different levels of attitudes towards and behavioral compliance with governmental policy relating to COVID-19, work-related variables including job insecurity, affective commitment, and helping behaviors, as well as psychological well-being
One major theoretical contribution of the current study is that we identify distinct latent trust-in-government profiles by simultaneously examining two foci of institutional trust and adopting a personcentered approach (i.e., Latent Profile Analysis (LPA))
Summary
Institutional trust, or beliefs about the degree to which the government is honest, cares for the public, has benevolent and caring intentions towards the public, and makes an effort in good faith to react to the needs and concerns of the public [2], is important, especially when a nation faces enormous crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic [3,4]. Because institutional trust is vital for the operation of democracy, efficient governance, institutional productivity, societal interactions, and compliance with governmental decisions [5,6,7,8]. It is imperative to have a better understanding of the role of trust in government in shaping the public’s reactions to a pandemic
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