CHAPTER 3

The Trust Imperative

Richard Edelman, Stephen A. Greyser, E. Bruce Harrison, and Tom Martin

Trust: It is one of the earliest feelings human beings have. Small children place their complete trust in parents, for their care, nourishment, safety, and well-being. As they grow older and wiser they make choices about whom to trust, and whom not to trust. This is true of people, and it is true of the enterprises they build.

Trust is not something that can be claimed, by individuals or by organizations; instead it must be earned. Enterprises—businesses, governments, nonprofits, labor unions, sports teams, and membership organizations—all learn through experience that their stakeholders judge them more by their actions and behavior than by their ...

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