People’s faith in business to do the right thing is recovering – but it remains fragile

Edelman’s annual trust figures are out, and they don’t look good. Let’s be honest, though, it was never going to be pretty. Recession, inflation, stagflation, unemployment, currency debacles: 2011 was a real stinker.

Interestingly, the blame game seems to have moved on. Two years ago, all fingers pointed at the business community. It was their greed that got us into such a mess. Now, it’s government in the dock. Public trust in politicians dropped by a record nine points to 43% globally. As for government officials, they are now officially the least credible spokespeople on the planet.

All the same, the private sector is hardly wallowing in credibility. Just over half (53%) of people trust business, a marginal fall on last year (56%). Chief executives came out especially badly, with a 12-point decline to 38%, the largest in nine years.

So what’s going on? Dig through the data and at least three major trends appear. First, the idea that governments have all the answers is fast evaporating. That has important connotations for business, according to Robert Phillips, chief executive of Edelman in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. People are now looking to companies for solutions to the world’s big problems. That gives business a “licence to lead”, rather than its “traditional role of protecting its licence to operate”.

Yet, leadership is no easy matter these days. The baton is being passed to business just as respect for hierarchical authority is plummeting.

That leads to the second development: a new era of “low, fragile, conditional trust”, as Phillips puts it.

How is that trust won? Not through command and control, certainly. Not even by stellar financial returns. The new magic word for trust is engagement. Businesses need to speak to employees and listen to customers. Above all, they must demonstrate an overriding commitment to transparency and openness.

Trend number three follows this logic. Who’s best set to engage the public? Not chief executives, that’s for sure. The data instead points to “people like me”.

Trust in me

For companies, that means employees. At 51%, everyday workers are now level-pegging with NGO representatives in terms of trustworthiness. It all comes back, as Phillips observes, to the “dispersal of authority” or, as he says, a “citizen renaissance”.

In these down-to-earth days, don’t expect official corporate responsibility reports to win hearts and minds. Social-networking (trusted by 88%), micro-blogging (86%) and content-sharing sites (75%) – ie democratic, horizontal communications – are where trust is now held. 

The emphasis on employees as company ambassadors has important management implications. At a most basic level, workers need to know about their employer’s responsibility policies. A recent Ernst & Young survey found that only 56% of European workers were aware that their company had an anti-bribery policy.

That’s simply not good enough, says Simon Webley, research director at the Institute of Business Ethics. Training on responsible conduct needs to be drilled “right down to the receptionist”, he says. Likewise with openness. Employees need to be confident to speak out about irresponsibility “without being branded part of the awkward squad”.

Corporations are quick to claim the right to be considered citizens. Trust rests on fulfilling the accompanying responsibilities as well. 



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