2 What is trust?
While a great deal of interest in trust has been generated by academics and practitioners alike, it is a concept that has attracted different definitions and interpretation.
Before we examine why trust is important, we need to establish the phenomenon of trust or, in other words, ‘what trust is’. In this course we will start by examining some ‘working’ definitions of trust to enable our analysis and discussion of the role and importance of trust within organisations.
Activity 2 What does ‘trust’ mean to you?
Reflect on your own views, thoughts, beliefs about trust, and what trust means to you. Make notes on this in the box below.
Some definitions of trust are provided below:
Definitions of trust
… when we say we trust someone or that someone is trustworthy, we implicitly mean that the probability that he [sic] will perform an action that is beneficial or at least not detrimental to us is high enough for us to consider engaging in some form of cooperation with him.
The willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party.
…trust is both the specific expectation that another’s actions will be beneficial rather than detrimental and the generalized ability to take for granted, to take under trust, a vast array of features of the social order.
From these definitions of trust we can see a number of different issues emerge.
Each definition of trust above involves two specific parties: a trusting party (trustor) and a party to be trusted (trustee).
Also, there are two related concepts raised in the definitions. These are the notions of ‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’.
For now, it is useful to assume that trust is associated with the related notions of risk (the specific expectation that another’s actions will be beneficial rather than detrimental) and vulnerability (the implication that there is something of importance to be lost).
Making oneself vulnerable is taking risk. Hence ‘trust is not taking risk per se, but rather it is a willingness to take risk’ (Mayer et al., 1995, p. 712).
Activity 3: Reflection on what trust in the organisational setting means
Refer back to the definitions of trust provided in Activity 2 and the emergent themes of risk and vulnerability.
While reflecting on the definitions and themes, think of two people you work with; one that you trust and one that you don’t (or one that you trust less than the other). For the purpose of this exercise they can be from any level of the organisation you are in. Then, answer the following questions:
- How well do the definitions and themes above account for the reasons you trust or distrust your chosen co-workers? What did you find most useful about each of the definitions or themes?
- Can you think of specific incidents that have impacted on your level of trust in each person? If so, what were they?
Feedback
The aim of this activity is to start to get you thinking and analysing the reasons why you would choose (or not choose) to trust a work colleague, particularly in terms of the concepts of risk and vulnerability.
