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Dr Graham Dietz, co-author of Building and Restoring Organisational Trust, is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at Durham Business School. Prior to this he worked at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the London School of Economics where he completed his PhD. His research focuses on trust repair after organisational failures, as well as trustbuilding across cultures. He also conducts research into the impact of HRM on performance. He has published over 15 articles in leading international journals, and is a regular speaker on trust.
Trust: the building blocks and the repair kit. Research and consultancy at Durham Now, more than ever, managing trust in the workplace is an essential Business School is at the forefront of work on trust. A new report co-authored management competence. Knowing by Dr Dietz with his colleague Dr Nicole how trust is built, supported and Gillespie (University of Queensland, recovered helps to nurture positive Australia) and published by the working relationships, and trusting Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), relationships at work have been provides insights and guidance for proven to deliver real bottom-line any organisation that needs to benefits. A trusted organisation is (re-)build trust. more likely to produce superior The report, Building and Restoring performance and to enjoy repeat Organisational Trust, starts from business with customers and investors, as well as be a great place first principles, and shows how ‘trustworthiness’ is made up of three to work. A trusted organisation is also more likely to recover effectively characteristics: ability, benevolence and integrity. A trustworthy from a crisis. Yet, while trust is a organisation is one that operates strategically valuable asset, it is effectively (ability), acts with due also elusive and in short supply concern for the interests of its in many organisations. stakeholders (benevolence), and conducts itself honestly and fairly (integrity). This, then, is the first trust challenge for businesses: building a reputation for trustworthiness based
on demonstrating these three characteristics, consistently and willingly, day in and day out. It follows that getting any of the three characteristics badly wrong can damage a trusted reputation. That’s when understanding trust repair becomes critical, because the quality of the repair effort can make or break a firm – just ask News International. Sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the specially commissioned report was published in June this year by the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE: www.ibe.org.uk). Established in 1986 to encourage high standards of business behaviour based on ethical values, the IBE encourages high standards of business behaviour based on ethical values, and offers practical and confidential advice on ethical issues. The parallels with trust are obvious.