IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i8p3746-d1639094.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Work and Comparing the Impact of Organizational Trust on Work Engagement Among Office and Production Workers in the Korean Food Manufacturing Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Jun Won Kim

    (Jeonbuk Environmental Health Center, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54907, Republic of Korea)

  • Jiyoung Park

    (Department of Safety and Health, Wonkwang University, Iksan 54538, Republic of Korea)

  • Byung Yong Jeong

    (Industrial and Systems Engineering, Hansung University, Seoul 02876, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

Organizational performance can be enhanced by adopting sustainable work policies. This study examined the relationship between psychological factors such as organizational trust, job satisfaction, well-being, and work engagement among workers in the Korean food industry. This study utilized the Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) data, and a total of 472 workers were selected as subjects for the research, comprising 185 office workers and 287 production workers. Regression analysis was conducted by comparing office and production workers to test the relationship between psychological factors and to identify causal relationships through a mediation model. The results of hypothesis testing via regression analysis indicated that organizational trust is proportionally related to job satisfaction ( p < 0.001), well-being ( p < 0.001), and engagement ( p < 0.001), while work engagement is proportionally related to job satisfaction ( p < 0.001) and well-being ( p < 0.001). In particular, in the regression equation analyzing organizational trust (T) and job satisfaction (y), as organizational trust increases, the rate of increase in job satisfaction of office workers (y = 1.131 + 0.610T) is greater than that of production workers (y = 1.131 + 0.557T). On the other hand, the initial level of work engagement (y) of office workers is higher than that of production workers in the regression equations concerning organizational trust (T) and work engagement (y = 1.753 + 0.516T vs. y = 1.634 + 0.516T), as well as well-being (W) and work engagement (y = 2.648 + 0.345W vs. y = 2.512 + 0.345W). According to mediation models, work engagement was directly affected by organizational trust and indirectly affected by job satisfaction or well-being, and office workers exhibited higher work engagement than production workers. The findings of this study emphasize the need for customized enhancements to working hours, work organization, and the work environment for production workers to ensure sustainable employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jun Won Kim & Jiyoung Park & Byung Yong Jeong, 2025. "Sustainable Work and Comparing the Impact of Organizational Trust on Work Engagement Among Office and Production Workers in the Korean Food Manufacturing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3746-:d:1639094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3746/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3746/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3746-:d:1639094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.