What Workplace Trust Looks Like

The importance and impact of trust was the subject of a recent study of about 3,000 hourly and salaried employees in a major industrial organization.

The respondents were asked to explain what trust meant to them and to identify experiences in their working lives that displayed trust and mistrust. The employees identified five such elements of trust:

1. Openness: the ability to openly express opinions and having supervisors share information.
2. Consistency or congruity: words that matched deeds and confidence in the information received.
3. Autonomy: Having the trust of the supervisor to use their own judgment to get a job done.
4. Feedback: having the supervisor stand behind employee decisions.
5. Shared values: understanding the job and management’s expectations.

SOURCE: Personnel Journal, “More Effective Communication,” Copyright © ACC Communications Inc. 1993. All rights reserved.