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| Positive Search #10-07: July 2010 |
Say what?
Shockley-Zalabak, P. & Ellis, K. (2006). The communication of trust. In T. L. Gills (Ed.) The IABC handbook of organizational communication (pp. 44-55).San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
In discussing communication and trust, the authors argue that “organization trust is a fundamental leadership responsibility and a growing area of responsibility for communication professionals" (p.44). They note that organizational communication influences employee perceptions of trust. Furthermore, they view trust as important because it relates to:
• cooperation;
• open communication;
• high-quality decision-making;
• effective risk taking behaviour;
• workplace stability;
• job satisfaction;
• higher performance;
• low employee turnover, and;
• overall organizational commitment
The authors indicate that the research shows that organizations with more trust enjoy the following benefits:
"1) more adaptive organizational forms and structures,
2) the ability to forma strategic alliances,
3) effective crisis management,
4) reduced litigation costs,
5) reduced transaction costs,
6) product innovation, and
7) economic performance." (p. 46)
Organization Trust Model.
The authors present their model of organizational trust, promoting it as a method to review organizational communication. They see organizational trusts as based on the following elements:
Competence - how effective are our leaders/co-workers and how strongly we believe our organization will succeed?
Openness and Honesty - this relates to the amount and accuracy of information, and also the way it is communicated.
Concern for Employees - includes empathy, tolerance, and safety.
Reliability - Do people in the organization act consistently and dependably? Do they walk the walk?
Identification – Connection to leaders/co-workers and the organizational culture (common goals, norms, and values).
The authors indicate that people who want to build trust should monitor trust levels and understand the distinction between personal and organizational trust. They note that trust is:
• multileveled (leader, co-worker, team, organization) and this must be considered in trust-building efforts;
• part of the organizational culture;
• communication-based, both in planned and unplanned communication;
• multidimensional, it is part of thinking, feeling, and behaviour; and
• dynamic, ranging from trust to distrust as well as being more or less open to change. “Fragile trust develops out of perceptions of short-term outcomes, while resilient trust is based on a long-term history of integrity (p. 49)”.
The authors recommend that leaders assess their decisions, strategic planning, and communication efforts using this model. Leaders need to assess the competence, openness, concern for employees, reliability, and identification elements of their leadership actions.
Commentary: Strategic Trust Planning: Target the right level.
In their model, the authors note that any interventions to improve trust should address all levels( person, team, organization, etc.). In this month’s commentary I want to focus on the effects of mismatches in trust at different levels. In the ideal world, high ratings of trust would exist at all levels. I want to note how mismatching in trust level might affect the individual employee and organization through a specific example that describes the frustrating organizational dynamic of silos.
When you have silos in an organization it appears that the different parts do not work together. In fact, it can often appear that they are working against each other. In silos, we trust our immediate team and leader but do not trust other groups within the organization. We might trust the overall organization, seeing the other teams as outsiders. We may not trust the overall organization, seeing ourselves as independent mavericks who are always under attack. Obviously, these dynamics can exist in various teams—creating a multitude of silos within an organization.
Now let’s turn to possible messages the Silo tells itself about others:
Competence: They are incompetent and we have no faith that they will do what they say or it will be done correctly
Openness and Honesty: They do not tell us anything. We only get a partial picture and it often turns out to be wrong. Sometimes they lie.
Concern for Employees: They have no idea about the pressures we are under and the fact we need their work to meet out deadlines.
Reliability: They have a history of letting us down and we always end up cleaning up their mess
Identification: They seem to work against the goals of the organization and are just in it for themselves!
I hope that the silo mentality in your organization is not this extreme. You can, however, analyze where the key disagreements lie. As a consultant, I have seen lower trust simply because others saw a particular team as incompetent. Sometimes people acknowledge that the other silo is competent but felt that team members were disrespectful and dishonest to those outside the group. These same distrust dynamics can exist within teams--- so team-mates create internal cliques. In summary, organizational trust dynamics are VERY complex. This model helps guide trust building efforts; identifying the underlying elements of distrust gives us targets in trust improvement efforts. In the first case, the one team can engage in professional development or work closer with other teams to show their competence. In the other case, efforts around respectful communication, honesty, and empathy-building may help.
Positive leaders can use this model to assess problematic dynamics within the organization. They might also assess their own communication using the model. Look at your organization's email communication and analyze it based on the dimensions of competence, openness, concern for employees, reliability, and identification. What messages were being sent in this planned communication? Are these the same messages you hear in the hallways or more informal conversations? If there is a difference, how does that affect you feelings of trust? How would your followers assess the organization on the five trust dimensions?
Building trust is not easy. It often seems that trust can be strained or easily broken but takes great effort to build---and even more to re-build. Positive leader can use the above model to better understand the trust dynamics in their team and organization. Given that communication efforts are important in building trust, positive leaders may want to be mindful about what (and how) they communicate.
Copyright 2010 Positive Leadership Solutions-James Hill
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