A question of trust

Local authority leaders can take little comfort from the findings of the first ILM Index of Leadership Trust, a research survey designed to measure the levels of trust that employees have in their managers. Though local government CEOs are not specifically identified as the worst offenders, the research firmly indicates that the UK’s least trusted leaders are those at the helm of large public sector organisations.

They can draw even less consolation from the details of the research findings. The degree of trust that employees have in their CEOs is primarily driven by two factors: how well they do their job and whether they are perceived as being principled and honest. The low trust index scores of public sector CEOs rather suggests that their employees have low opinions of both their ability and their integrity. Ouch.

Interestingly, line managers in the public sector enjoy significantly higher levels of trust, broadly comparable to those in similarly sized organisations in the private sector. Middle management, it would seem, is not where the problem lies. It’s those at the top that should really be worried.

The research – from an online survey of 5,673 UK employees conducted in May and June 2009 – points to a number of factors that help explain the poor trust ratings of public sector CEOs. But before looking at those in more detail it’s worth making the point that trust in the workplace is not new-age management mumbo-jumbo. It’s fundamental to organisational efficiency.

Employees who don’t trust their leaders ‘will disengage from their work and focus instead on rumours, politics and updating their CVs,’ concluded one recent study (The Enemies of Trust by R Galford and A S Drapeau). Other researchers have pointed out that workplaces where there are high levels of reciprocal trust require less unproductive bureaucracy and intrusive surveillance. They are not just more efficient organisations, but happier workplaces too, characterised by higher morale and lower staff turnover. Employees who feel that they are not trusted by their leaders and managers are unlikely to trust them in return.

The research makes clear that the size of an organisation has a profound effect on the trust employees hold in their leaders. The bigger the business and the more remote the relationship between manager and managed, the lower the level of trust. More subtly, the findings reveal that the length of relationship between leaders and led is just as important. The combination of a new CEO, a large organisation and a high proportion of long-serving employees is pure poison to trust levels.

This presents local authority leaders – especially those who are relatively new in the post – with some stiff challenges. Councils are in the front line in the battle to repair the country’s economy and reduce public debt while still delivering high quality services, for which demand is only likely to increase. For some years to come local authorities will be charged with doing more, but with less money. Some things will have to change.

And change is in the air on the political front. For the past 12 years town halls have been answering to a Labour administration in central government. That doesn’t look likely to continue for much longer. Conservative plans for local government reform fall well short of radical – conservative you might say – but  it’s not yet clear what effect their proposed bonfire of the quangos, for example, would have on the country’s councils. Some more things will have to change.

So here’s the rub for new local authority CEOs. Trust in leaders and managers is essential for successful change management. Employees anxious for their futures – whether that’s about pension entitlements, salaries or even having a job at all – are unlikely to respond to radical reform if they don’t trust their bosses. They will only wholeheartedly embrace new responsibilities and working methods when they believe they are doing the right things for the right reasons. The depressing but inescapable evidence from the ILM report is that too many council leaders do not enjoy the levels of trust this requires.

Read the full Index of Leadership Trust report