TRUST AND THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP

The IPD suggested in its statement People Make the Difference (1994) that building trust is the only basis upon which commitment can be generated. The IPD commented that: ‘In too many organizations inconsistency between what is said and what is done undermines trust, generates employee cynicism and provides evidence of contradictions in management thinking.’

It has also been suggested by Herriot et al (1998) that trust should be regarded as social capital – the fund of goodwill in any social group that enables people within it to collaborate with one another. Thompson (1998) sees trust as a ‘unique human resource capability that helps the organization fulfil its competitive advantage’ – a core competency that leads to high business performance. Thus there is a business need to develop a climate of trust, as there is a business need to introduce effective pay-for-contribution processes, which are built on trust.

The meaning of trust 

Trust, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is a firm belief that a person may be relied on. An alternative definition has been provided by Shaw (1997) to the effect that trust is the ‘belief that those on whom we depend will meet our expectations of them’. These expectations are dependent on ‘our assessment of another’s responsibility to meet our needs’.

A climate of trust 

Ahigh-trust organization has been described by Fox (1973) as follows:

Organizational participants share certain ends or values; bear towards each other a diffuse sense of long-term obligations; offer each other spontaneous support without narrowly calculating the cost or anticipating any short-term reciprocation; communicate honestly and freely; are ready to repose their fortunes in each other’s hands; and give each other the benefit of any doubt that may arise with respect to goodwill or motivation.

This ideal state may seldom, if ever, be attained, but it does represent a picture of an effective organization in which, as Thompson (1998) notes, trust ‘is an outcome of good management’.

When do employees trust management?

Management is more likely to be trusted by employees when the latter:

● believe that the management means what it says; 

● observe that management does what it says it is going to do – suiting the action to the word; 

● know from experience that management, in the words of David Guest (Guest and Conway, 1998), ‘delivers the deal – it keeps its word and fulfils its side of the bargain’; 

● feel they are treated fairly, equitable and consistently.