Initiatives aimed at creating and maintaining trusting relationships with various stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers and investors are at the top of the executive agenda for many organizations. But most companies do not understand how to manage the trust of stakeholders effectively. In fact, our studies show that many trust initiatives and approaches that organizations invest in may be of questionable value. Others may actually be counterproductive. Managing stakeholder trust in difficult, because there are many different interest groups, each with their own needs and perspective. This means that the trust is multidimensional, and it is not clear what size managers need to focus on with any particular constituency. To answer these questions, the authors conducted a study of the confidence of stakeholders in four different organizations. They analyzed the relationship (if any) of a variety of factors: benevolence, integrity, managerial competence, technical competence, transparency and value comparisons. In essence, the study said, that matters - and for whom. Some of the results were surprising, and some were even illogical, resulting in the following key ideas: Transparency is high, integrity is not enough, the right kind of competence; confidence with one group can destroy it with the other, and the values of the comparison questions in all areas. The new framework challenges some existing beliefs and sheds light on the areas that companies would be wise not to ignore. Indeed, as the authors illustrate fundamental misunderstanding trust stakeholders have been tripped corporations such as Coca-Cola, Google, Apple, Delta Air Lines, Mattel and Sprint. Deep knowledge of the trust of stakeholders will help businesses take advantage of the numerous benefits, including improved collaboration with suppliers, increased motivation and productivity among employees, improve customer loyalty and a higher level of support from investors. "Hide
by Michael Pearson, Deepak Malhotra Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 10 pages. Publication Date: July 1, 2008. Prod. #: SMR286-PDF-ENG
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