ROLE OF TRUST IN MEDIATING THE EFFECTS OF SATISFACTION AND COMMITMENT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This investigation was designed to study the relationships between the variables of satisfaction with extrinsic rewards, organizational commitment and trust perceptions of employees, and these variables’ impacts on an organizationally important outcome, that is, performance. The data for this investigation comes from 230 service employees of 34 randomly selected quality restaurants in Istanbul. The analyses revealed that for service recovery performance prediction, the affective facet of commitment and the extrinsic reward facet of satisfaction have sizable influences as expected. However, the present results indicated that the determining factor of these variables relative to service recovery performance was the frontline employees’ trust in their supervisor. Taken as a whole, the findings provided support for the proposition that employees’ affective commitment and extrinsic reward satisfaction are necessary, but not sufficient by themselves without the mediating role of trust in the supervisor for predicting the frontline staff’s service recovery performance. Finally, implications of the reported findings for the investigated quality restaurant businesses as well as other service sector firms are discussed, along with suggestions regarding the human resource practices offered to boost trust among employees.