Initiatives to build and maintain trust with various stakeholders — customers, employees, suppliers and investors — have risen to the top of the executive agenda at many organizations. We continually hear about “transparency” initiatives, open-door policies and 360-degree evaluations, customer-retention programs, voluntary product recalls, initiatives for corporate social responsibility, rethinking of “customers as partners” and other trust-building moves. But the problem is that most companies don’t really understand how to manage stakeholder trust effectively. In fact, our research suggests that many of the trust-building initiatives and approaches that organizations invest in may be of questionable value. Others might actually destroy trust.
One of the reasons managing stakeholder trust is difficult is because there are many different stakeholder groups, each with its own particular needs and perspective. That is, trust is multidimensional, and it’s not obvious which dimension executives need to focus on when dealing with any particular constituency. Consider the following: An employee might trust his supervisor because he believes that she expresses genuine concern for his well-being, or because she is a very competent manager, or for both reasons. In turn, the supervisor might trust the employee because she perceives that his values are congruent with hers, or because she can rely on him to get work done efficiently, or for both reasons. In a different context, the investment community might trust a company... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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