The effect of job insecurity on organizational trust during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the aviation sector

Abstract

Due to the novel COVID-19, millions of workers in the aviation industry have lost their jobs, and most of the remaining employees experience unemployment anxiety. This study aims to investigate the effects of job insecurity on both managerial and organizational trust and the mediating role of unemployment anxiety in hopes of improving employees’ well-being and promoting business continuity. In this cross-sectional study, the convenient sampling method was adopted. The research was conducted with the participation of aviation sector employees (n=210) of ground handling companies located in Turkiye. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed on the collected data for hypothesis testing. As per the results obtained from the study, quantitative job insecurity increases pessimism and adversely affects managerial trust and organizational trust (through managerial trust). Moreover, qualitative insecurity increases optimism, which adversely affects managerial trust. Managerial trust affects organizational trust positively. This study reveals that qualitative job insecurity led the employees to retain optimism but damaged both management and organizational trust during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative job insecurity, on the other hand, caused pessimism and, as a result, affected managerial trust negatively.