With the Government showing that it too is not past trust haemorrhaging announcements such as the 40,500 job losses unveiled in the Budget, it is hardly surprising that new figures show employees mistrust both the top table and their immediate supervisor.
In a poll of almost six hundred (598) visitors to UK online HR news and information service, HR Gateway, 80% said that they did not trust the top table in their organisation while 65% said they did not trust their immediate supervisor.
Only 15% said they actively trusted the directors in their organisation while just under a third (30%) said they trusted their immediate manager, signalling that a lot of work needs to be done by all level of managers in the UK.
For the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), findings such as these are troubling. Many surveys reveal the same problems and it is all a result of badly implemented change, says the CMIís Karen Charlesworth, a process which is ënot rocket scienceí to handle correctly:
ëMost of the time it comes down to three things: communication, trust and praise. We all want to be kept in the picture as to what is happening, we all want to be trusted to do our job and we all want praise for what we do.
ëHigh levels of change in firms are not being communicated down the line leading to a lack of trust. All levels of employee have immediate supervisors to which they can point the finger. It is not rocket science but still we do not appear to be learning,í she said.
A recent report from Roffey Park suggested that young managers themselves were losing trust in their organizational leaders, while findings from Liquid HR suggested that only three in ten people trusted their immediate manager.
One survey from Black Mountain recently even suggested, that for employees, the trustworthiness of managers in handing out bonus allocations was questionable. Half the people responding said they thought the process was ëpurely subjectiveí.
The same survey also suggested that employees thought managers were more likely to commit petty crimes, pretend to work from home while really taking the day off, job hunt on workís time and exceed holiday allowance.
Chief executive of the Institute for Leadership and Management (ILM), Gary Ince, also feels that it comes down to a lack of communication in the change processes that many organizations ñ public or private ñ are finding themselves in:
ëMistrust is a sign of a lack of leadership at all levels and is indicative of major change. Marconi is a good example of this. It divested its traditional business only to have to realign itself shortly afterwards. A huge amount of change for staff.
ëLeaders need to ensure that any changes are communicated early and that staff know why the change is necessary. They also need to ensure that the message has spread and if anything goes wrong they need to ensure they are honest and communicate why it went wrong,í he said.
Mistrust in managers widespread as times ëchangeí
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