Developing A High-trust Organization

As Thompson (1998) comments, a number of writers have generally concluded that trust is ‘not something that can, or should, be directly managed’. He cites Sako (1994) who wrote that: ‘Trust is a cultural norm which can rarely be created intentionally because attempts to create trust in a calculative manner would destroy the effective basis of trust.’

It may not be possible to ‘manage’ trust but, as Thompson argues, trust is an outcome of good management. It is created and maintained by managerial behaviour and by the development of better mutual understanding of expectations – employers of employees, and employees of employers. But Herriot et al (1998) point out that issues of trust are not in the end to do with managing people or processes, but are more about relationships and mutual support through change.

Clearly, the sort of behaviour that is most likely to engender trust is when management is honest with people, keeps its word (delivers the deal) and practises what it preaches. Organizations that espouse core values (‘people are our greatest asset’) and then proceed to ignore them will be low-trust organizations. 

More specifically, trust will be developed if management acts fairly, equitably and consistently, if a policy of transparency is implemented, if intentions and the reasons for proposals or decisions are communicated both to employees generally and to individuals, if there is full involvement in developing HR processes, and if mutual expectations are agreed through performance management. 

Failure to meet these criteria, wholly or in part, is perhaps the main reason why so many performance-related pay schemes have not lived up to expectations. The starting point is to understand and apply the principles of distributive and procedural justice.