Despite the large amount of research that examined the relationship between leadership and various outcomes, the leadership scholars have continuously attempted to explore the explanatory mechanisms of leadership. Leaders may affect the formation of trust relationships among the group members due to their certain attitudes or behaviors, yet this aspect has not been actively applied to the leadership research. This study advances the understanding of leadership in three primary ways. First, this study adds a novel set of explanatory variables: the centralization and density of followers’ trust networks. Second, two types of trust network variables are examined including task-based trust and support-based trust. Third, the explanatory role of the trust network variables was compared with collective LMX, a commonly supported explanatory variable of the association between leadership and outcomes. The results show that work group LMX mediated the associated between three leadership variables (ethical leadership, transformational leadership, and abusive supervision) and work group-level turnover intention. However, of the network indexes, only task-based trust network density emerged as a significant mediator, as it mediated the association between ethical leadership and work group intent to quit. Although the indirect effects of leadership were not significant, three of the four trust network variables were significant predictors of work group turnover intention supporting the value of work group trust network indexes.
