Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are quoted as saying, “Trust is the most significant predictor of individuals’ satisfaction within their organizations.” So it would seem appropriate to ask, do you trust the organization you work for? Or put in a somewhat larger context; is your organization a trustworthy one? These can be intimidating questions, but if Kouzes and Posner are correct, they are important ones to ask.
Last month I used two examples from Stephen Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust, to illustrate the necessity of trust in building a great team and workplace environment. I would like to extend that idea a little further to the organization as a whole. When we talk about trusting an organization we are usually reflecting on our interactions with the people within that organization. And while it could be an experience with just one person, we often transfer that experience to the entire organization. All of this reinforces the importance of building trust at the personal level, but it goes beyond that.
There are many things organizations can do to either build or tear down trust. I would like to highlight one theme that I am particularly interested in helping organizations develop; alignment of behaviours with stated core values. Again, let me use Covey to illustrate what I am talking about.
“The problem in organizations, however, is that many ‘ethics’ solutions focus on compliance. The compliance definition of ‘ethics’ is not one of integrity or integratedness; it is a watered-down, devalued definition that essentially means ‘follow the rules.’ Ethics training, therefore, is often focused exclusively on conformity to Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory and rules-based legislation – and not on clarifying values and fostering integrity to those values and to enduring principles…ultimately the problems we’re facing in organizations today cannot be solved with this kind of ‘follow the rules,’ outside-in compliance approach. As Chris Bauer, a psychologist and corporate ethics trainer, has observed:
What we’re really talking about here isn’t a law enforcement or regulatory issue. It’s a psychological issue – an absence of core values, confusion about what is the right thing to do. I see a lot of companies saying that they’re going to tighten their rules, I don’t see a lot of them saying that they’re going to work to be extremely clear about what their values are, and give people training on how those values translate into actual behavior.
Only as corporations focus on trust and integrity – on congruence rather than compliance – will they be able to promote true organizational credibility and trust. As Albert Camus said, ‘Integrity has no need of rules’” (pg. 61-62).
Again, it is hard to over estimate the value of trust for teams, in creating a positive workplace environment, and at the larger organizational level. Good, clear communication about what is expected, how business will be conducted, and how people are to be treated is a significant aspect in building that trust.
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Do You Trust The Organization You Work For?
Last month I used two examples from Stephen Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust, to illustrate the necessity of trust in building a great team and workplace environment. I would like to extend that idea a little further to the organization as a whole. When we talk about trusting an organization we are usually reflecting on our interactions with the people within that organization. And while it could be an experience with just one person, we often transfer that experience to the entire organization. All of this reinforces the importance of building trust at the personal level, but it goes beyond that.
There are many things organizations can do to either build or tear down trust. I would like to highlight one theme that I am particularly interested in helping organizations develop; alignment of behaviours with stated core values. Again, let me use Covey to illustrate what I am talking about.
“The problem in organizations, however, is that many ‘ethics’ solutions focus on compliance. The compliance definition of ‘ethics’ is not one of integrity or integratedness; it is a watered-down, devalued definition that essentially means ‘follow the rules.’ Ethics training, therefore, is often focused exclusively on conformity to Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory and rules-based legislation – and not on clarifying values and fostering integrity to those values and to enduring principles…ultimately the problems we’re facing in organizations today cannot be solved with this kind of ‘follow the rules,’ outside-in compliance approach. As Chris Bauer, a psychologist and corporate ethics trainer, has observed:
What we’re really talking about here isn’t a law enforcement or regulatory issue. It’s a psychological issue – an absence of core values, confusion about what is the right thing to do. I see a lot of companies saying that they’re going to tighten their rules, I don’t see a lot of them saying that they’re going to work to be extremely clear about what their values are, and give people training on how those values translate into actual behavior.
Only as corporations focus on trust and integrity – on congruence rather than compliance – will they be able to promote true organizational credibility and trust. As Albert Camus said, ‘Integrity has no need of rules’” (pg. 61-62).
Again, it is hard to over estimate the value of trust for teams, in creating a positive workplace environment, and at the larger organizational level. Good, clear communication about what is expected, how business will be conducted, and how people are to be treated is a significant aspect in building that trust.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2011 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.