A Study of Supportive Climate, Trust, Engagement and organizational Commitment

Abstract

This study was undertaken to explore the relationship between supportive climate and organizational commitment as mediated by trust and employee engagement. In a field test of 243 engineers and technicians from a Fortune 100 multinational firm, participants completed surveys about their organization's supportive climate, trust in their organization's leadership, affective organizational commitment, and engagement. Support for all hypotheses was found: (1) positive relationship between supportive climate and organizational commitment, and both (2) trust and (3) employee engagement mediated the climate-commitment relationship. Limitations of this study include generalizability of findings and common method bias. In human capital intensive industries, the value of human resources is measured in behavioral manifestations (e.g. turnover) of low trust, engagement, commitment, and a less than supportive work environment. By understanding the relationships among those variables managers can actively manage their human capital.