It Starts with Trust: How Mid-Level Student Affairs Supervisor Trust Behaviors Impact Entry-Level Staff Leave Intention

This dissertation examines the impact of how higher education student affairs mid-level managers (supervisors) develop and maintain trust with directly supervised entry-level staff (employees). Intervention in complex student development-oriented activities, student crises, and political protests has increased since the 1930s at higher education institutions throughout the United States. Entry-level or frontline student affairs staff manage these challenges most frequently. Yet these professionals often leave their positions within 3 years. Studies have highlighted inconsistent supervision as one of three reasons entry-level staff vacated their roles. Although many researchers have investigated why these staff members exited the field, less knowledge exists about working relationships between entry-level staff and their mid-level direct supervisors. This quantitative conceptually replicated correlational study examined trust dynamics between higher education student affairs managers and employees by seeking the impact of the perception of the trust relationship between mid-level student affairs professionals and their entry-level direct reports. I explored perceived supervisor behavioral trust factors of competence, benevolence, and integrity from both the leader and employee perspectives. The study included 74 student affairs managers and employees from 171 four-year public institutions in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Region III states. Mid-level participants completed 17 Likert scale self-reflection questions about how they built trust with their supervisees. Entry-level participants completed similar reflection questions on trust behavior perceptions of their supervisor and 10 additional self-reflection questions about work performance and intentions to leave their roles. The study showed that although demographic factors did not yield significant trust perception differences, competence positively correlated with staff leave intention among the identified trust factors. Although correlation does not equal causation, further opportunities exist to explore trust behaviors between mid-level and entry-level professionals. Additionally, student affairs leaders can focus beyond well-established research on the rationale behind entry-level professional turnover or attrition rates and accept that employees transition through positions faster than in the past. Instead, leaders can examine how these faster cycles impact broader teams and develop more systemic strategies that prepare their student affairs departments or divisions to become more nimble organizations while experiencing vacancies.