Six Reasons Why Eldeman Trust Barometer Is Important for India

Eldeman Trust Barometer is eagerly awaited every year. As the issues of trust gain importance, this Barometer is indeed a wake-up call for all the institutions in the country to introspect where they are positioned as far as trust level is concerned. I hereby highlight seven reasons why Trust Barometer is important for India;

1] Business has emerged as the most trusted institution in India. This is surprising considering the fact that economy is in dump, and the markets are down. I think the trust in business has gone up simply because feel that business can give them opportunities for self-employment. The  entrepreneurial culture is growing up fast in the country, which is indicator of people’s trust in their abilities to do business. The business can maintain this high level of trust by generating more jobs through community-centric focus, due to paradigm shift in CSR  recently.  It has become mandatory  for businesses to invest in CSR activities. The  trust results also show that people in other countries don’t have trust. in Indian business units situated there. There is a  distinct  dichotomy in trust here, and it will be a big challenges for Indian business houses to win trust abroad. I think the low trust level in other countries is a handicap here , which has  an impact on image of Indian business abroad.

2] NGOs recording a rise in trust level is a welcome development. It shows that peope are  expecting NGO’s to raise the socio-political issues, so that it puts pressure on the government. Anna Hazare  movement presented a unique model of building up trust. This has given rise to more NGOs adopting a pro-active stance in mobilizing opinion on issues of national concern.

3] The trust level in government has come down, which is a worrisome trend.I think the rise in NGOs trust level is playing a major role here, as peoples’ trust in government has come down because NGOs are exposing weaknesses in the government system here. Surprisingly, the rise in trust level of government official/regulator shows that steps for increasing regulation are gaining more legitimacy due to rise in the corruption level. This does not mean that trust level in  general bureaucracy is rising, may be the trust in solely regulatory officials is high. The results show that only 25 % feel that government officials do the right things. This shows growing distrust level in the government. A cloud of suspicion seems to have come up in people’s minds regarding the actions of government officials, and this is a bad signal for governance in the country.

4] The trust in   media has generally  come down. I think the main reason for this is that people are not fully convinced that media has an un-biased approach. The political and business interests of media remain uppermost on people’s mind. However, trust in traditional media remains high, which is a welcome indicator. I think people have a strong emotional bondage with the traditional media. It Is symbolic of India’s rich  cultural heritage in which traditional media has an important role to play. Social media is still evolving, and has yet to find full legitimacy. With growing social media, traditional media faces a big challenge to maintain its high trust level. Much will  depend on its ability to win people’s credibility through a professional approach in highlighting people’s issues, rather than focusing on elite political class.

5] It is good to know that in individual  category,  and experts are trusted most. I think this category thrives on high degree of professionalism, without biases. It also shows that well-educated brains don’t get their minds corrupted by external influences. The companies and organizations must nurture these think-tanks, which will increase their level of trust.

6] I think the Eldeman Trust Barometer must try to involve other institutions in trust survey. The glaring omissions here are police, judiciary, and politicians. These three institutions are the foundations of trust in our country. The nature of trust is fragile for all these institutions. So, including them in annual trust survey results, will be important in assessing the vibrancy of Indian democracy. While trust deficit in case of politicians is increasing, police and judiciary too are quite vulnerable on this front. Trust in police is low because it is considered a part of State machinery. Similarly, the trust level in judiciary’s independence is low, as the courts today have to increasingly interfere in those cases which could have been resolved by the executive and legislature. The trust survey should also include cooperatives, which are democratic-membership based organizations. They have won the trust of the communities in which they are embedded, the success story of Amul is quite notable here. The cooperatives are not merely economic organizations, but also have a social mission, so the trust quotient is high here.       

See Guest Column on Trust as Foundation of Society; An Economic Perspective

                                               GUEST COLUMN BY

                                               

                                               Dr Anshuman,Professor and Head,Economics

                                               Petroleum University,Dehradun

Trust has been the foundation of every society in all civilizations in all times. Whenever there  has been deficit in trust, it has led to catastrophic effects on the people, societies and countries. All wars, riots, civil wars, etc. are the manifestations of the trust- deficit.In a simple society, the daily activities were run on the basis of trust without any modern institution. People used to keep their money with other respected members of the community on the basis of trust without ay legal agreement. Many business activities were held without any written contract.

With  the economic development , many institutions have sprung up to enforce the contracts , which earlier were performed by trust. However, if one attempts to analyze  the cases of breach of contracts in modern time and earlier time , one would find that cases  of breach of contract are   more in modern society than earlier time in absolute term as well as  proportion of total contracts. Its testimony is modern judiciary flooding with cases of breach of contract by one of the parties in the agreement. It proves that the trust has eroded in the society in general.

 Today, every body is interested in his own advancement with no consideration of others. Though the Economics law propounded by Adam Smith also advocates this philosophy, it has its own flaws. Adam Smith suggested that if each member of the society is advancing its own interest, in doing so, he is also advancing the interest of the society as a whole. However, this law has proved wrong time and again. The recent Sub-prime crisis of the US has again manifested this. The mortgage originators, investment bankers and other players involved in the financial sector worked for maximizing their own profits at the cost of society at large. However, the end result has been the enormous cost inflicted not only on the whole US economy but also on the whole world economy. It  eroded again the trust of Americans in its financial sector and of countries in American economy. It has taken many years to restore this trust again in the American financial sector. Still it is not fully restored, which is evident by weak recovery sign in the economy.                                               

See First Guest Column on Trust; An Indian Leadership Perspective from IIRD

                                                                                   

                    GUEST COLUMN ON TRUST

  In  the First Guest  Column  Dr L.C.Sharma, Director, Institute For Integrated Rural Development, Shimla [http://www.iirdshimla.org/,  comes up  with frank, forthright and honest views on multi-demensional questions related to Trust, Dr Sharma,Director, IIRD can be contacted at director@iirdshimla.org

The cosmological phenomenon interprets that the kind of vibrations we emit from our mind either in ideas or in feelings, those respond back to us with their multiple effects. If we emit positive, rational and trustful vibrations, we get the trust with multiple effects and vice-versa. Here the intensity of the vibrations in shape of will at the transmitter end and matching wavelength  at the the receiver end are two crucial factors.  In the corporate world trust is more or less the regulated delegations of responsibilities within defined limits. This is regulated trust based on supervision. Can we imagine a person working sincerely without any supervision and consistently striving for achieving the organisational goals without even being caring for rewards or appreciations? When this process begins; the process of trust building starts.  But in today’s world, it is hard to find out the people who do not require supervision. The concept of supervision starts from the feeling of distrust. 

 Trust cannot be unilateral as it has multi-dimensions viz. mental evolution of the trusting person, the nature & worthiness of the person to be trusted, external factors like circumstances & environment, limits or extent of trust, etc.The ever increasing self-centric nature of people has created trust – deficit in all walks of life. Parents are losing trust on their children; employers are losing trust on the employees; the public is losing the trust in the government; and many a times husband and wife are losing trust in each other. This has happened majorly due to the absence of thrust on character building process within the individual.

 No organisation can sustain if weakening in terms of trust on the management, employees, clients and other stakeholders. The relationship among all these is very delicate and crucial. But the trust in an organisational perspective is always calculated and within defined limits. Trust building amongst the employees and stakeholders is very important. Employees and stakeholders can take the organisation to the heights and also bring it down to the bottom. If employees lose trust on the management, they will simply become unproductive which finally paves the passage for their discontinuation. If the management loses trust in the employees, it tries to find the exclusion path. If stakeholders lose trust, this hampers the growth of the organisation drastically and contracts the horizon of the organisation.

As per our experiences in IIRD, we have noticed that as long as any employee trusts himself / herself, the association continuous and the moment one loses trust on one’s capacity in given role, the sufficient ground gets created automatically for departure. Without introspection, people start justifying themselves. There must be the lack of trust somewhere perhaps otherwise the people should have come up with the true feelings, introspection, request for getting mentoring support, capacity building, nurturing etc. This normally happens when people don’t get aligned with the organisational spirit and feel being alienated. We could not find even a single person approaching the management with the proposal to sacrifice part of the compensation because of non-achievement of defined targets when the management is ready to incentivise for good performance. The people having faith on themselves, not only contributed meaningfully to the organisation; but got multiple elevations within shortest time period also. 

This is the major challenge with every organisation to find the people of strong character & trustworthy. In fact, people first lose trust on themselves to have the courage to convert the environment conducive to them. Non-competence and non-compliance amongst employees are two major challenges nowadays.In order to get rid of the employees losing trust in themselves and thereby losing trust in the organisation, there is need of continuous mentoring and nurturing the people down the line. The routine workload sometimes causes neglect in mentoring. And the recruitment process sometimes brings untrustworthy people inside which causes multiple problems. The major challenges are to bring right people within the organisation and mentor them continuously.

: Social trust is very important for a vibrant democracy. The trust in social set up may help in identifying and selecting right people for giving leadership to the nation. People should have trust in the representative democracy and the representatives should also care sensitively for the aspirations of the people. Unfortunately in the party politics system, the representatives represent their political ethos rather than the aspirations of the electorates. No representative has been found taking ownership with accountability for the overall development of his / her constituency.

Trust is extremely important in relationships as every relation remain dry and formal without trust. The distrust in relationship sometimes diminishes the whole life of the people. Hence trust has always to be regarded as the pillar of relationships.Spirituality is the only means for creating culture of trust. India being the Guru of spirituality for the entire world since the time immemorial is the ideal nation to revive and promote culture of trust. The true spiritual person always cares for others selflessly recognising the spark of spirit in every one.

Trust in education is very very important. The students should have trust in what they are studying apart from the trust between teacher & students. More the trust between the teacher and the students, more the receptability amongst the students will be.The professional approach to be adopted in the life should start from creating faith in ourselves with positiveness, rational self analysis and benevolence. Selfless service to others gives internal strength. The fragrance of roses comes only from the hands which distribute roses. Understanding the real essence of Bhagvadgita, the philosophy of life beyond all religions, can also be helpful.
  

See my comment on Charles H.Green’s Blog on Trust;Indian Implications

See my comment on   blog of Charles H.Green,CEO of Trusted Advisors;.

http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters/building-trust-based-organization-part-ii

Creating trust-based organisations is a big challenge for the CEOs of the organisations today.I liked the article for its fresh insights.I have advocated for cooperatives  as effective trust-based organisations in my comment to Charles' blog,simply because cooperatives because of their value-orientation can play an important role in building up trust.

Trust-based organisations are key to organisational success today.Organisational dynamics must take this factor seriously.The organisational management must give trust it due place in its strategic priorities.

The Indian organisational scenario today demands building up trust-based organisations due to following reasons;

1] Organisations in India are increasingly facing the problem of distrust,and this is more a reflection of trust-deficit in all walks of life.

2] The leadership in the organisations has to shed bureaucratic approach in tackling the issues,and for this creating an atmosphere for equal participation is important,through trust.

3] The Indian organisations must give due emphasis to values in their business ethics,as the traditional Indian society respects values,as a part of India's cultural heritage.I think the importance of values has not been given due recognition in building up a culture of trust.. 

Can We Build Up Team Without Trust?

Please see my comment in a good write-up on trust in the following link,and author's response.

http://empoweredbypierce.com/no-trust-no-team

    I find organisations lack team-spirit because trust is absent.But,what needs to be done?I recommend following;

1]  Every person in an organisation should learn to respect other.

2] Team is built when people identify with a common goal.Organisations must help people identify that common goal.
3] Team leaders must generate trust by setting an example.They have to become role models.

4] Values-based training based on organisation's thrust areas should be given emphasis.Values must blend well with organisations'thrust areas

5] Trust is built when people are emotionally attached with each other,which helps in building team-spirit.Organisations have a big challenge here.

Five Reasons Why 2014 Edelman Trust Survey Barometer Is Important For Indonesia

Please go through an interesting link below,on Edelman trust survey results in Indonesia.That business evokes more trust,than politics is a definite paradigm shift.A survey conducted by Edelman last year found that 82% of respondents trusted business institutions,which was higher than trust in the media[78%],NGOs [73%] and the government[53%]
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/06/indonesians-trust-business-more-government.html
  I find five reasons why Edelman trust survey in Indonesia are important;
1]  Governance in business institutions is an important factor of trust-building.If there is good governance,then trust will follow naturally.For good governance,creating transparent systems is important
2] Political systems do not necessarily build up trust,which others can follow.Instead if business is sound,then trust will emerge,which can be a trend-setter.
3] Building up ethical business frameworks may be more convenient than strengthening ethics in political systems.Simply because there is strong realisation that businesses can flourish only if they are built on strong ethics.
4] The public trust can be built upon good business,not necessarily clean politics.So,people can have more confidence in business for country's socio-economic transformation.
5] Business leaders can be good trust-builders,than politicians,if they take right decisions,and develop a compassionate attitude towards the work-force.
       I will wait for more similar type of results in other countries,then only a definite pattern can be seen.But.the results are an eye-opener.In the times of economic melt-down,when trust disappeared from businesses,there is one country at least,which can show different results.
                

Discover the Joy of Trust In Relationships

                                

Trust is a treasure of our daily life. However, we do not understand its true value. It is generally seen that trust in our daily lives is disappearing fast. Why have we become so suspicious that we can  not enter into meaningful relationships with each other? Why can we not behave as normal human beings? After all when we were born as human beings the first lesson we learnt was that we should trust each other. However, as our lives progressed slowly, trust began to diminish. Our childhood innocence gave way to calculations in which there was no place for trust. Today, there appears to be huge trust deficit in all walks of  life. Relationships is an area which has come under the cloud of mistrust in an increasing manner.

Trust in each other gives strength and vitality to our relationships .It gives us more happiness, which is priceless. It gives joy all around, and life appears to be brighter and brighter. Its fragrance spreads far and wide. Trust keeps us in a positive mental framework. When you trust each other you feel so confident. You feel so safe, and secure. The feeling of believing others is electrifying. It not only provides sense of security but provides us new zeal to fight the vagaries of life. We develop a strong life-force, as a result of which we muster up courage to face the daily challenges.

Trusting each other gives us a sense of deep bonding. It signifies that we are united to fight the battles ahead. Trust is synonymous for warmth in our relationships. With so many advantages of trusting each other how do we feel when germs of mistrust appear? Life appears to be devoid of colour, and it lacks spontaneity. We behave with each other mechanically like robots. We constantly live with fear and tensions We live in our shells and we are unable to share with each other. We live in a suppressed condition, which inhibits the growth of our personality. As a result, we are not able to contribute to the betterment of our society. We are not able to create a conducive atmosphere where there is transparency all around.

A society whose foundation is built upon trust is progressive and dynamic. Lack of trust signifies decay in the society. A lot of conscious efforts has to be made in this direction. We need to nurture our relationships with care. We should not let our ego destroy our relationships. This requires constant efforts to know each other fully. The more we  try  to explore each other, the more we can handle each others’ contradictions well. In the process , more trust we will be able to generate..

 Most of the problems in relationships occur because because we can not handle each others’ contradictions well. It is very strange that we ourself do not want to open up.  We   are not able to overcome our mental blocks.  As a result, we tend to look others with doubt. We live in our own world of likes and dislikes, as we are not able to create a right balance. No doubt, people tend to view us with suspicion. If we are balanced in our thoughts and actions then people will trust us .For this we must shed the habit of finding fault with others, even on a slight pretext. Instead, we should make others aware of their positive traits and strengths. This will enhance our credibility, which will lead to building up trust.

For building up trust, we must not indulge in unhealthy competition by trying to outwit each other. Instead we should master the art of rejoicing in the happiness of others. Good performance of others should spur us to act in a positive manner. Being jealous and competitive will be of no use as it will lead to destroying trust. No one is perfect in today’s era. If there would have been perfection all around, then there would have been no mistrust.

We must build up trust against the background of limitations in our personalities. Mistrust is itself a reflection of our inadequacies and imperfections in handling our relationships with finesse. After all reform begins at  home. Let us reform ourself by giving time to our relationships and thinking of ways to strengthen them. Trust will then follow naturally