In a Nutshell
Jack Welch says that it
is enormously powerful in an organization, and that people will not do
their best without it.1 Management guru, Warren Bennis,
calls it the major leadership challenge of today and tomorrow. 2
Why is trust so important? How
can managers build trust?
Interpersonal trust promotes
creativity,
conflict
management, empowerment,
teamwork,
and leadership during times of uncertainty
and change. A culture of trust is a valuable asset for the organizations
that are able to develop it.
Characteristics of trustworthy
managers include integrity, reliability, fairness, caring, openness, competence
and loyalty. Organizational actions and policies that promote a culture
of trust include investing in employees, promoting open communication,
behaving in an ethical and socially responsible manner and providing a
measure of job security.
In This Issue
Whether it was due to incompetence, a political agenda or unconscious bias, Dan Rather has undermined viewers' trust in him and CBS News. Earlier this month, Dan Rather announced that CBS News was in possession of documents that portrayed President Bush's service in the National Guard in a very unfavorable light. CBS News' efforts to authenticate the documents were very poor. It will be difficult for CBS News to retain Dan Rather as their anchor because news reports are only useful to the extent that we trust the source.
Rather exacerbated the problem by qualifying his apology for the false reports. He argued that even though the documents in question are fakes, the thrust of the story (that Bush received preferential treatment while in the Guard) was correct. Excuses don't repair trust; sincere apologies and reparations do.
What Trust Is
Trust is an expectation
that another party will not allow you to be harmed at a time when you are
vulnerable. Your willingness to trust another party is affected by
your history with that party and your personality.
To a large degree, trust
is a history-dependent phenomenon. Obviously, we cannot trust strangers
as much as we can trust people we have long-standing relationships with.
As we become more familiar with an individual or a group, we gradually
allow ourselves to be vulnerable to them. We share our personal concerns.
We will do a favor for them because we expect them to be willing to return
it one day. We rely on the information they give us to make decisions
that we are held accountable for. As long as no injury comes from
that vulnerability, our trust increases. However, some individuals
and groups violate our trust. We allow ourselves to be vulnerable,
and they take advantage of us or let us down. The information they
provide to us proves to be unreliable or misleading. They use the
information we share with them in a way that harms us. As a result
of our distrust for that party, we are less inclined to cooperate with
them, we have to verify what they tell us, and we are careful not to share
too much information with them.
The propensity to trust
others is also a personality trait. Aside from our experiences with
other parties, some of us tend to generally be more willing to trust others.
At one extreme, some people are too cynical or controlling and therefore
unwilling to trust others. At the other extreme, some people are
naïve or gullible. Of course, most of us are willing to exhibit
some trust of others until given a good reason not to.
The Benefits of Trust
As Jack Welch indicates,
trust in organizations is enormously powerful. Individuals who trust
the people they work with are self-assured, open and honest, willing to
take risks, less resistant to change, and inclined to act in a trustworthy
manner. Trust is empowering. In contrast, individuals who distrust
the people they work with tend to be less productive because they feel
unsupported and alone, they do not believe what they are told and therefore
often do not listen, and they must take time to corroborate what they have
been told before they can believe it.
A major advantage to interpersonal
trust is information sharing and collaboration.
When people trust that they will be given credit for their ideas and that
sensitive information that they share will be kept confidential, they are
more inclined to discuss their creative ideas and personal goals
and concerns. Such an open environment is the ideal context for developing
innovative ideas and resolving conflicts with "win-win" solutions.
Managers who trust their subordinates are more inclined to delegate tasks
to them, and subordinates who trust their managers are more comfortable
taking on the additional responsibility even when there is some risk of
failure. Such subordinates know that their mistakes will be treated
as learning opportunities rather than threats to their careers.
Trust is fundamental
to leadership during times of change and uncertainty.
Leaders who have established trust among their followers are able to direct
them with less resistance. On the other hand, it is much riskier
to follow a leader that you do not trust when you are in unfamiliar circumstances.
Followers go above and beyond the call of duty for leaders they trust.
Followers only do what they have to for leaders they do not trust.
You can see how valuable
it is to have a high level of trust throughout an organization. Trust
is part of an organization's "social capital," and can be a very valuable
intangible asset. Social capital promotes cooperation, commitment,
extra effort, continuous improvement and information exchange, which can
all help an organization survive and achieve a competitive advantage.
Thus, it is well worth the effort to build a culture of trust.
How to Build Trust
Several characteristics
of good managers engender trust from the individuals and teams that they
lead:
How to Repair Trust3
When trust has been violated
in an important relationship, it should be repaired. In short, the
process of repairing trust requires the "violator" to apologize, ask for
forgiveness, and make reparations. Not all relationships survive
violations of trust. The "victim" has to believe that the benefits
of being in the relationship justify the work required to repair the trust.
Victims often find that it makes more sense to develop entirely new relationships
by, for instance, requesting a transfer or leaving the firm. However,
if the victim (a) is willing to put in the time and energy, (b) perceives
the potential value derived from the relationship, and (c) does not have
better options, the following steps will help violators repair the trust
that they have damaged.
Steps to Take
Aftermath
Even when forgiveness has
been granted and reparations have been made, relationships do not always
"return to normal" after violations of trust. The violator often
has lingering feelings of guilt, embarrassment and self-consciousness when
around the victim. It may take time for the victim's emotions to
wane as well. The victim may also be hyper-vigilant to the violator
in the
future.
In Summary ...
Trust is too valuable an
asset to be taken for granted. It's very difficult to negotiate organizational
change or do collaborative work without it. While it may take weeks,
months or years to develop it, a single violation can damage it.
Fortunately, trust can be repaired if the violator will own up to it and
make reparations.
Notes
1. Anonymous. (1993). Jack Welch's lessons for success.
Fortune,
127(2): 86-93.
2. Hodgetts, R. M. (1996). A conversation with Warren
Bennis on leadership in the midst of downsizing. Organizational
Dynamics, 25(1): 72-78.
3. Based on Lewicki, R. J. & Bunker, B. B. (1996). Developing
and maintaining trust in work relationships. In Trust in organizations:
Frontiers in theory and research, R. M. Kramer & T. R. Tyler (Eds.),
pp. 114-139. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Additional Sources and References
Konovsky, M. A., & Pugh,
S. (1994). Citizenship behavior and social exchange. Academy
of Management Journal, 37(3): 656-669.
Kreitner, R. & Kinicki,
A. (2001). Organizational behavior, (5th ed.).
New York: Irwin McGraw-Hill.
Leana, C. R. & Van Buren
III, H. J, (1999). Organizational social capital and employment
practices. Academy of Management Review, 24(3): 538-555.
MacKenzie, S. B, Podsakoff,
P. M., & Rich, G. A. (2001). Transformational and transactional
leadership and salesperson performance. Academy of Marketing Science,
29(2): 115-134.
Robbins, S. P. (2001). Organizational
behavior, (9th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
About the Photo
AP Photo, e-mailed to me September 29, 2004 from Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com).
About the Newsletter and Subscriptions
LeaderLetter is written by Dr. Scott Williams, Department of
Management, Raj Soin College of
Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. It is a supplement to my
MBA 751 - Managing People in Organizations class. It is intended to reinforce
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A woman was walking down the street when she saw a man walking a three legged
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pig. "Excuse me sir, can you tell me why it is you are walking down the street
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save me."
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"a pig this special isn't eaten all at once."