The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

Understanding and Valuing Organizational Trust

Numerous definitions of trust concern trust that results from positive expectations about another's conduct, and distrust reflecting negative expectations of another's behavior. The key is behavior. While everyone has individual intentions, and even entire organizations have intentions, the trust-distrust evaluation is determined not by what we intend but by our behavior. There are numerous examples of individuals and organizations intending to deceive or at the very least mask the full reality of a situation. Often these deceptions have been successful with behaviors and, at least initially, judged to be trustworthy. We also can remember entering a group and distrusting what might happen. When we ...