18406: The Impact of Supervisor Ability, Benevolence, and Integrity on Health Care Employee Outcomes (session 25463)

Trust is essential for effective relationships between health care employees and their supervisors. According to the often use ability, benevolence, and integrity (ABI) model of trust, supervisors must have all three dimensions to establish trust with employees. Our study challenges this key assumption by demonstrating that when supervisors exhibit only one or two dimensions of ABI, it can lead to beneficial employee outcomes. More specifically, employees experience higher person-job fit when supervisors exhibit high benevolence or integrity, as well as higher job satisfaction when supervisors exhibit high benevolence or ability. Relatedly, employees have lower turnover intentions when supervisors display both high ability and integrity. These findings offer a refinement of the ABI model and address calls for a deeper analysis of trust. By utilizing qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we also introduce a new methodological approach for theory testing in the health care management context. Overall, our study provides actionable insights for health care organizations to improve their work environments by focusing on specific avenues for trust-building efforts.

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