Linked:HR
  • Our Campus
    • Join Now
    • How Tos
    • Knowledge Forum
    • OD & Training Forum
    • Business Forum
    • LinkedIn Groups
    • Expert Blogs
    • Certification Resources
    • Recommended Books
    • Event Calendar
    • Career Resources >
      • Free Job Board
      • HR Resumes
      • All Resumes
    • Support Linked:HR!
  • Our Institute
    • Join the Institute
    • Dr. Wildermuth's Blog
    • Featured Programs >
      • Five Predictors of Engagement
      • NPR's Jack Speer Interview
      • Personality at Work
    • Curriculum >
      • Flash Learning
      • eCourses
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Training Materials
      • Book Club
    • Leader Interview Series
  • Our Services
    • Sponsoring & Partnership
    • Talent Acquisition
    • Talent Development >
      • Training
      • Leadership Development
      • Consulting & Research
      • Personality Assessment
      • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Keynote Speaking
    • Business Develoment
    • B2B Matchmaking
  • About us
    • Who We Are
    • A Word from our CEO
    • The Team
    • Legal >
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms & Rules
      • Communication Preferences
    • Contact Us

ENGAGEMENT AND TRUST

3/14/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
A while back, I wrote a brief article entitled "How to Disengage your Employees in Seven Easy Lessons."  The lessons were:
  1. Enforce unnecessary rules.
  2. Make employees fear for their jobs.
  3. Ensure that the work is boring.
  4. Ignore contributions.
  5. Pay NO attention to human relations problems. 
  6. Work employees to death.
  7. Ignore the organizational culture in your hiring decisions.

​Recently, I have been thinking of an eighth "disengagement lesson":  Make sure your employee feels not trusted. Let's start by what trust means. Trust is a multifaceted construct. For example:
  1. You may trust someone's integrity but not that person's competence in a particular area. Alternatively, you may trust someone's competence but not that person's organization or reliability.
  2. You may not trust someone because you have a skeptical nature.
  3. You may work in an environment where mistakes are severely punished. Under those conditions, your tendency may be not to trust anyone. 

The first set of examples has to do with the other person's characteristics (according to your perception, of course). Item 2 relates to your personality and cultural background. Item 3 relates to the cultural environment. When organizations have a low tolerance for even small mistakes, the result is often widespread mistrust. 

Of course, the problem is that all these trust components interact with one another. For example, you could mistrust someone's competence because you are terrified of the consequences should the person make a mistake. You could be leery of a person's integrity because you tend to mistrust almost everyone. 

What does all that have to do with engagement? William Kahn's landmark article Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work suggests that engagement relies on three critical components: meaningfulness, psychological safety, and resource availability. Kant argues that trusting relationships connect to psychological safety. He writes:

"Interpersonal relationships promoted psychological safety when they were supportive and trusting. Such relationships had a flexibility that allowed people to try and perhaps to fail without fearing the consequences" (Kahn, 1990, p. 708). 

I would argue, though, that trust relates to all psychological engagement conditions. Meaningful work is one in which one feels valued and valuable. An employee is unlikely to feel "valued" in a low trust environment. In particular, one cannot have one's integrity questioned and feel "valued." Likewise, resource allocation depends on trust. If my leaders do not trust me, they will not share the critical information I need to perform my duties. 

So, here are my questions to all of you:
  1. Have you ever felt "not trusted" at work? What was the impact of the lack of trust?
  2. Might HR processes reinforce an untrusting environment? For example: What happens when you ask an employee to provide "proof" that they have the flu? Aren't you questioning their integrity when you do so?

I know it's not easy to trust a large number of employees. I am also a realist; I realize some people lie. The conundrum, though, is: Might you be disengaging your best employees to prevent those who - let's face it - you might not want in your organization in the first place?

I'm curious about your thoughts!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Dr. Cris Wildermuth

    Dr. Cris Wildermuth is Linked:HR's Community Leader and an Associate Professor at Drake University, where she directs the Master of Science in Leadership Development. You may find out more about Dr. Wildermuth's leadership development, ethics, and intercultural development consulting practice at THIS PAGE.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019

    Categories

    All
    CONTINGENCY WORKERS
    ENGAGEMENT
    ETHICS
    Holidays
    Leadership
    PERSONALITY
    SAFETY
    TIME MANAGEMENT

    RSS Feed

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Would you like to support Linked:HR? Consider becoming one of our sponsors! Your logo and services will be displayed in our page. Additional business services are available to our sponsors. Please CLICK HERE for additional information.
Next Dimension Media Linked:HR Sponsor
Click Here!
Drake University Linked:HR Sponsor
Click Here!
Amazon Linked:HR Sponsor
Click Here!
Narrative Linked:HR Sponsor
Click Here!
The Effectiveness Group Linked:HR Sponsor
Click Here!

About Us | Privacy | Terms & Rules | Contact Us
Copyright © NextDMedia, LLC. 2019
  • Our Campus
    • Join Now
    • How Tos
    • Knowledge Forum
    • OD & Training Forum
    • Business Forum
    • LinkedIn Groups
    • Expert Blogs
    • Certification Resources
    • Recommended Books
    • Event Calendar
    • Career Resources >
      • Free Job Board
      • HR Resumes
      • All Resumes
    • Support Linked:HR!
  • Our Institute
    • Join the Institute
    • Dr. Wildermuth's Blog
    • Featured Programs >
      • Five Predictors of Engagement
      • NPR's Jack Speer Interview
      • Personality at Work
    • Curriculum >
      • Flash Learning
      • eCourses
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Training Materials
      • Book Club
    • Leader Interview Series
  • Our Services
    • Sponsoring & Partnership
    • Talent Acquisition
    • Talent Development >
      • Training
      • Leadership Development
      • Consulting & Research
      • Personality Assessment
      • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Keynote Speaking
    • Business Develoment
    • B2B Matchmaking
  • About us
    • Who We Are
    • A Word from our CEO
    • The Team
    • Legal >
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms & Rules
      • Communication Preferences
    • Contact Us