This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center
Dr. Yeonsoo Kim and colleagues studied how an organization’s base crisis responses and dialogic competency impacted employees’ trust, satisfaction, belonging, and support for the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An online survey of 378 U.S. employees who worked full-time at small, medium, and large companies across 18 industries was conducted in September, 2021.
Key findings include:
1.) Employees trusted their organizations’ pandemic-related commitment when organizations provided more instructing information.
— Instructing information told employees what physical actions to take to protect themselves.
2.) Employees became less likely to develop trust in their organizations’ pandemic-related commitment when organizations provided more adjusting information.
— Adjusting information delivered emotional support to employees and helped them cope with the pandemic psychologically.
3.) Employees developed trust in their organizations’ pandemic-related commitment when organizations demonstrated a higher level of dialogic competency by being open and respecting mutuality with employees.
4.) Employees’ trust in organizations’ pandemic-related commitment further contributed to their support for organizational decisions during the pandemic, and their relational satisfaction with and belonging to the organizations.
5.) Organizations’ dialogic competency directly contributed to employees’ support for organizational decisions during the pandemic, and their relational satisfaction with and belonging to the organizations.
— Dialogic competency reflected the extent to which the organization listened to employees and engaged in open, transparent, and respectful conversations with employees during the pandemic.
Find the original study here.
