The Moderating Role of Trust on the Relation Between a Leader’s Calling and an Employee’s Calling

Approaching work as a calling is associated with numerous positive outcomes, yet we know little about how callings develop. Grounded in social cognitive career and meaning-making theory, this study explores whether leaders who are called to their roles foster the development of calling in their employees.Using a three-wave longitudinal design with a sample of 285 U.S. employees, we examined whether perceiving a leader as called—and trusting that leader—predicts growth in employees’ sense of calling over time.Results indicate that perceiving calling in a leader that is trusted supports the development of calling in employees. We observed that this process is relatively slow compared to other modeling processes, requiring at least four to eight months to unfold.This study contributes to the literature by identifying leaders as potential socialization agents in the development of calling. The practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.