Among the conclusions from the study are:

- Employee mistrust will be a leading cause of turnover as the job market revives.
- Employees who do not trust their managers and organizations focus on protecting themselves at the expense of the commitment, productivity, and cooperation organizations need to compete.
- Mistrust makes it more difficult to create a compelling culture that provides a sustainable competitive advantage.
- Managers and organizations can significantly reduce mistrust by providing open, honest, and frequent communication.
- Follow-through on commitments and promises may be the single most important behavior in preventing employee mistrust.

Behaviors & Actions Causing Mistrust

Pennington Performance Group, IRI Consultants to Management, and Pilat NAI (or Pennington, IRI, and Pilat) are major players in performance management and organizational effectiveness. Their groundbreaking study identifies the specific managerial behaviors and actions that contribute to a lack of trust.

Lack of follow-through (including not delivering on promises) and failure to provide desired amounts of open communication are the leading causes of mistrust. Character issues such as dishonesty and self-serving behaviors ranked sixth and seventh on the top ten list of causes.

Randy Pennington, leader of the study, believes mass lay-offs and the difficult economic climate are weighing heavily on the minds of employees.

"Corporate scandals have proven that dishonest and unethical leaders exist," Pennington says. "But this study tells us that employees are more concerned with practical issues affecting their day-to-day lives and ability to succeed."

The top 10 causes of mistrust identified in the Trust Factors @ Work study were:

1. Failure to follow through & keep promises
2. Amount & availability of communication
3. Openness of communication
4. Incompetent or poor decisions
5. Incompetent job performance
6. Dishonesty
7. Self-serving behaviors
8. Perception of unfair decisions
9. Failure to provide support & advocacy
10. Communicating in a demeaning style

The Impact of Mistrust

The study also reveals that mistrust negatively affects employee retention, performance, morale, and open communication.

As the job market revives, "It will be payback time for the poor treatment of employees," says Pennington. "Star performers who survived the carnage of lay-offs will soon have plenty of options. Trust will become a primary consideration for attracting and retaining the top talent."

Over 33% of responses about the results of mistrust cited reduced loyalty and the ability to find and retain qualified workers.

What Makes This Study Unique

Organizational Effectiveness experts have long known that mistrust has a negative impact on individual and organizational performance. But, there has been very little research into the specific causes of mistrust.

Pennington says, "It is easy for leaders to generalize or reflect their own beliefs about what causes mistrust in their employees. Doing so puts the organization at risk."

Unlike many surveys that start with a hypothesis that may prove to be false, this study utilized cutting-edge technology created by IRI to undertake thematic analysis of free-form text. This enabled research participants to describe their views and experiences in their own words, uninfluenced by any former hypothesis.

Over 1,000 thematic responses were analyzed to identify five broad categories: character, communication, competence, consistency, and courage.

Seventeen specific managerial behaviors spanning all five categories were identified as primary contributors to mistrust.

"The seventeen behaviors are interesting and certainly important," says Pennington. "But the top ten are really the most critical. Over 75% of responses fell into these areas."

These behaviors will drive the refinement of diagnostic tools and provide solutions to this important subject, Pennington believes. "The results of the study are important because they can provide catalyst for change," he says.

For more information on this study, please contact:

Randy Pennington, President
Pennington Performance Group
www.positiveperformancemanagement.com
(972) 980-9857
Randy@penningtongroup.com

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