Harward, Eve (2008) The Relationship Between Trust in Immediate Supervisor and Employee Engagement in a Health Organisation. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The present study investigated whether the time an employee had worked under their immediate supervisor impacted on their level of trust in their immediate supervisor. Length of service with the organisation was examined to determine its effect on the level of employee engagement. In addition, trust in immediate supervisor was explored as a predictor of employee engagement. The participants were 5,506 respondents with complete data who took part in the Queensland Health Better Workplace Staff Opinion Survey of April 2008. The Trust in Leadership-Immediate Supervisor scale developed by Goh, Machin, and Patrick (2007) was used to measure trust in immediate supervisor. To measure employee engagement, the short-version Employee Engagement scale developed by Robinson, Perryman, and Hayday (2004) was utilised. A one-way ANOVA with planned comparisons showed a significant difference between those who have worked with their supervisor for less than one year and those who have done so for 1 to 3 years (p < .05). However, no significant difference was found between those who have worked with their supervisor for 1 to 3 years and those who have done so for more than 3 years. A one-way ANOVA with trend analysis showed that length of service to the organisation had a significant quadratic relationship with the level of engagement with the bend at the 6 to 10 years mark (p < .05). Post-hoc comparisons showed that those with a length of service of 6 to 10 years were significantly less engaged than those with a length of service of less than 1 year. In addition, those with a length of service of 6 to 10 years were significantly less engaged than those with a length of service of 1 to 2 years. However, there were no significant differences in employee engagement scores for the other pairs of comparison. A simple linear regression revealed that higher levels of trust in immediate supervisor were associated with higher levels of employee engagement and accounted for 22% of the variance in the level of employee engagement (p < .05). The inclusion of other relevant variables will be beneficial in understanding the dip in employee engagement after 6 to 10 years of service and in understanding the extent of the impact of trust in immediate supervisor on employee engagement in the workplace. Notwithstanding the limitations of the study, the implications of the results highlight the importance of an organisation developing its leaders given the extent of their impact on employees and hence organisational outcomes.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Hong Eng Goh |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Nov 2025 23:36 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Nov 2025 23:36 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52397 |
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