Manager’s Trust and Trustworthiness in Sustainable Practices: Impact on Turnover and Manager’s Performance in Restaurants in China

This study examines the effects of managers’ trusting and trustworthy behaviors toward employees on turnover rates and performance evaluations within 115 restaurants in China. Utilizing data from a large-scale hypothetical experiment involving over 2000 employees and managers, combined with performance and operational data from these restaurants, we applied both game theoretical and empirical methods to analyze the dataset. Our findings reveal that managers’ trusting and trustworthy actions are significantly associated with lower turnover rates, highlighting how trust-driven leadership can enhance organizational stability and sustainable business practices. For senior associate managers, their trusting actions toward employees positively impact their performance. Furthermore, senior associate managers working in restaurants where employees are more trusting and trustworthy toward their peers tend to receive higher performance ratings. This study uniquely connects behavioral trust and trustworthiness measures with objective performance outcomes, offering new insights into the critical role of trust in fostering sustainable business practices and improving economic performance.