CIPD Cultivating Trustworthy Leaders 2014

Research report
April 2014
Cultivating trustworthy leaders
WORK WORKFORCE WORKPLACE

Championing better work and working lives
The CIPD’s purpose is to champion better work and working lives by improving practices in people and
organisation development, for the benefit of individuals, businesses, economies and society. Our research work plays
a critical role – providing the content and credibility for us to drive practice, raise standards and offer advice, guidance
and practical support to the profession. Our research also informs our advocacy and engagement with policy-makers
and other opinion-formers on behalf of the profession we represent.
To increase our impact, in service of our purpose, we’re focusing our research agenda on three core themes: the future
of work, the diverse and changing nature of the workforce, and the culture and organisation of the workplace.
WORK WORKFORCE
Our focus on work includes what Our focus on the workforce includes
work is and where, when and how demographics, generational shifts,
work takes place, as well as trends attitudes and expectations, the
and changes in skills and job changing skills base and trends
needs, changing career patterns, in learning and education.
global mobility, technological
developments and new ways of
working.
WORKPLACE
Our focus on the workplace includes how organisations are
evolving and adapting, understanding of culture, trust and
engagement, and how people are best organised, developed,
managed, motivated and rewarded to perform at their best.
About us
The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. We have over 130,000 members internationally
– working in HR, learning and development, people management and consulting across private businesses and
organisations in the public and voluntary sectors. We are an independent and not-for-profit organisation, guided in
our work by the evidence and the front-line experience of our members.
Acknowledgements
This report was written by Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey and Dr Stefanie Gustafsson, with help from Dr Graham
Abbey, Vanessa Robinson and Claire McCartney.
The research team were:
Director – Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey, University of Bath
Dr Graham Abbey, University of Bath
Juliet Daye, University of Bath
Charissa Freese, Tilburg University
Dr Stefanie Gustafsson, University of Bath
Professor John Hailey, University of Bath
Claire McCartney, CIPD
Tara Rees-Jones, University of Bath
Vanessa Robinson, CIPD
Anne Stevenson, Robert Gordon University
We would very much like to acknowledge the help of Steven Weeks (NHS Employers) in facilitating access to NHS
trusts.
Organisational acknowledgements
We would like to thank the 13 organisations that gave us access to their people and to those people for taking the
time to speak so openly about this important but personal issue:
Aberdeenshire Council
ABN AMRO
BAE Systems
BBC Worldwide
Church of England
Day Lewis Pharmacy Group
GKN
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
John Lewis Partnership
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
Serco
Unilever
iii Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Contents
Executive summary 2
Introduction 6
1 Cultivating trustworthy leaders 10
2 The ecosystem of trust 15
3 The interplay between trust and practices and policies 22
Appendix 1: The case studies 26
Appendix 2: Additional information about data collection and analysis 60
References 61
1 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Executive summary
1 Trust remains a concern problem-solving, engagement and leadership behaviour has to be

Recognising and appreciating that knowledge-sharing will thrive within consistent or regular over time.
there are high levels of uncertainty organisations (Dietz and Gillespie
in society is key to understanding 2011). In contrast, too much 3 The role of HR policies and
the need for trust. It is not that distrust creates stasis or, at worst, processes
every senior leader has become dysfunction. To enable people to Our case organisations make use
a demon who cannot be trusted. move into a state where they are of a range of practices to select,
Certainly some leaders have found willing to experiment or change, develop and assess trustworthiness.
themselves to be lacking but not all. we need to increase people’s In summary, we got the sense
Some leaders have maintained their propensity to trust (Ashleigh et al that it was much easier for the
integrity. 2012) and simultaneously raise organisations participating in
their leaders’ ability to accentuate our study to assess and develop
The perceived trust crisis may their demonstration of their own trustworthiness when they associated
instead be more about people trustworthiness. it with ability and predictability.
demanding and needing a greater In cases where trustworthiness
and more overt demonstration of To get the organisational change was mainly about integrity and
trustworthiness from their leaders necessary across sectors, we need benevolence, some organisations
and organisations precisely because to get employees to a psychological made use of development tools
they are feeling a higher level state where, despite feeling such as master classes, activity-based
of uncertainty about the future. vulnerable, uncomfortable and learning and case studies. However,
In essence people need more unsure about the future, they are assessing these quantitatively
reassurance that their leaders or willing to take the risk of trying was much more challenging and
institutions are reliable. They expect new working patterns or practices hence there was a stronger focus
more ability, benevolence, integrity (Rousseau et al 1998). on making judgements based on
and predictability from their leaders personal interactions and having a
because they feel a fear about the 2 Characteristics of trust ‘sense’ or ‘feel’ of the person.
future. The literature tells us that
trustworthiness is based on four Strengthening the trustworthiness
Yet the paradox remains the same characteristics: ability, benevolence, of individuals
as in the last report: while we are integrity and predictability (Mayer HR practices may help to increase
feeling uncertain, we also need et al 1995, Dietz and Den Hartog individual trustworthiness in various
high levels of trust in order to get 2006). These four characteristics ways:
back to an economic, social and form the foundational pillars of
political certainty we once enjoyed. trust: • Selection techniques such as
We are not trusting because we evidence-based, values-based and
feel uncertain and yet the very a) Ability describes perceptions of whole-person based interviewing,
things that will make us feel more leadership competence in doing referrals as well as assessment
certain – a renewed sense of their job or fulfilling their role. centres build trustworthiness
morality within society, continual b) Benevolence describes a concern through increasing evidence
growth, opportunity for all, a for others beyond leaders’ own about the individual.
perceived justice in how the fruits of needs and showing levels of care • Development practices such
prosperity are shared within society and compassion. as action learning increase
– cannot be achieved unless we c) Integrity defines how leader self-awareness around
learn to trust again. trustworthiness is linked to being weaknesses and strengths which
seen as someone who adheres to may build trust in oneself as
We know that high levels of principles of fairness and honesty well as the human element of
trust will deliver the enabling while avoiding hypocrisy. leadership.
conditions in which innovation, d) Predictability emphasises how • Development practices such

as master classes and training objectivity and transparency In addition, there was also a
courses increase consciousness through selection and concern that as organisations had
of the needs of others, such as development practices leading introduced more practices and HR
the need to trust and be trusted. to increased perceptions of policies, there was little possibility
• Assessment practices such integrity, inclusivity and hence for individuals to earn trust. As we
as 360-degree feedback higher levels of trust have seen before, trust is built as
increase trust in individual • receiving external recognition individuals are empowered and
leaders by providing evidence for practices, helping to build given space for experimentation.
of trustworthiness as well as organisational trustworthiness However, when an organisation
creating trust relationships internally and externally. becomes too concerned with
through open exchange and adhering to policies, this space
sharing. 4 When HR policies and ceases to exist.
• By rewarding behaviours that practices actually challenge
are perceived to be trustworthy, trust levels Our practitioners felt that in recent
trust is recreated. While overall most of our years people have been discouraged
• Practices help to build evidence participants described a positive from focusing on the personal in
by formalising ‘gut feel’ and relationship between HR practices selection decisions. Instead they
‘cross-referencing’ sources. and trust levels, some also talked about an over-elevation of
expressed their concern about the rational. Indeed, they observed
Strengthening the trustworthiness a possible negative relationship that the more technology-driven
of organisations between the two. This was HR becomes, the more there is a
Similarly, HR practices may help particularly the case when there danger of ignoring the intuitive or
to increase trustworthiness at an were perceived to be ‘too many’ the relational response in selection
organisational level by: rules and regulations in HR, which decisions which is more about the
could be interpreted by individuals potential candidate as a whole
• creating platforms for as ‘we don’t trust you to do things’ person. HR policies and practices
conversations and open dialogue or ‘we command and control you only ‘come to life’ when they
about trust to make sure the things are done’. are implemented by people who
• building trust relationships As such, there is a suggestion believe in them being good for
across the organisation by that too strong a reliance on the organisation and are willing
creating cross-team exchange HR practices may result in an to exercise their judgement and
line manager involvement environment where there is low override systems or processes in
• increasing consistency, trust in people. favour of the ‘right thing to do’,
Practice and
policy
High Balanced
process but approach −
impersonal high process
and non- and strongly
relational relational
Low trust Highly

because little personal and
or no process relational but
and non- low attention
relational to processes
Relational

rather than simply adhere to a box- certain characteristics in how they predictor of trustworthiness to
ticking exercise. define trustworthiness. This does the exclusion of other elements of
not mean that each of these is trustworthiness such as benevolence
So what then seems to be mutually exclusive. Instead, in many or integrity, this can result in a
important in order to create cases our participants describe a competitive form of ‘red cape style
an environment of trust and combination of characteristics. leadership’, with a preference for
trustworthiness is that HR practices However, what seems to be leaders who demonstrate their
and policies evolve alongside the important is understanding the capability through firefighting their
personal and relational side of underlying assumptions that way through crises. Equally, too
trust. Trust is about accepting the organisations have in mind much emphasis on benevolence
vulnerability of someone else and, when thinking about trust and can result in people not being held
as we have shown in our previous trustworthiness. This seems crucial accountable for their behaviours
report (Where has all the trust in order to cultivate trustworthiness or their performance. Predictability
gone?), is primarily a relationship in leaders. These assumptions are or consistency is sometimes hard
between a trustor and a trustee. part of what we refer to as the for leaders to promise as they
ecosystem of trust and discuss in are not always in control of the
Based on our research, we thus depth in the report. external environment beyond their
propose that organisations may business unit or organisation.
draw on two different forms of We have distinguished between What is clear is that employees are
trust: ‘relationally embedded trust’ four types of organisations which demanding much more integrity in
and ‘practice- and policy-driven each emphasise one of the communications. Transparency and
trust’. What is needed is a balance. characteristics of trustworthiness. honesty in communications is vital
Ideally one wants a strong culture Each of these has advantages and as so many people have so much
where ‘trustworthiness becomes an disadvantages. Hence we are not more access to information than
automatic and the norm’ and, on suggesting that one is ‘better’ they had 10 or 15 years ago – there
the other hand, ‘a framework of than the other. Instead there is a is no point in ‘spinning’.
HR policies and processes in place’ combination of factors such as the
that ‘ensures people act in a certain industry context, the organisational 6 Leaders as humans – ‘Let
way’. context and the external leaders be themselves’
relationship context which influence To be trustworthy, leaders should
5 Dominant preferences the meaning of trustworthiness. share their personal side with
for certain elements of employees. They should remove the
trustworthiness Each dominant type has strengths ‘uniform of leadership’ from time to
What we also saw in our case and weaknesses. For instance, time and reveal their human side.
studies is that organisations seem when organisations veer towards HR practitioners and employees
to have a dominant preference for using ability as the sole or dominant talked about the need for leaders
Type 1 Type 2
Emphasising ability Emphasising benevolence
Trustworthiness
Type 3 Type 4
Emphasising integrity Emphasising predictability

to bring the personal and the real
into their accounts of themselves.
Leaders should be encouraged to
be fallible and to be human and to
admit their flaws. Their followers
would trust them more if they did
this. Trustworthy leaders were also
encouraged by their organisations
to share their personal stories which
revealed something of them as
people rather than functionaries –
as such storysharing was key rather
than storytelling. And our research
showed that leaders needed to
be interested in and keen to listen
to the personal stories of their
followers if they wanted to establish
a trusting, long-lasting relationship.

Introduction
As a researcher, it is always pleasing troubled waters and reassure the employees. However, there are still
to be asked to extend a piece of general public. plenty of job opportunities and
research that you have already high salaries for the best talent
published. A chance to explore an Continued prosperity for the or the very experienced ‘C suite’
issue in more depth is a special broader European population is executives. Elitism thrives, resulting
opportunity. So, I was thrilled to no longer assumed as it was at in high incomes and multiple job
be given funding by both the CIPD the start of the new millennium. opportunities for top executives or
and the Higher Education Funding Ten years ago the then PM, bankers. This only widens the gap
Council to extend my first piece of Gordon Brown, had assured us between high-earners and the rest
research on trust. The research team that ‘By working together Britain of the workforce, which breeds a
has again worked in partnership had a new found and hard won resentment and jealousy amongst
with the CIPD research team in terms stability’ – a stability that was then the ‘have nots’. Disappointed
of data collection and data analysis destroyed by the financial crisis graduates in the UK struggle to find
and interpretation. We have looked and its aftershocks. People are still the jobs they expected to get, jobs
at 13 different organisations across shaking from that economic fallout. that were once easily accessible to
many different sectors: the John The Spanish, Italian and Greek previous generations of graduates.
Lewis Partnership, Aberdeenshire economies have been under severe Public sector cuts erode local
Council, ABN AMRO Bank, BAE pressure, a pressure threatening at and national service provision
Systems, BBC Worldwide, Church of points to destabilise the European as the planned staged rollout of
England, Day Lewis Pharmacy, GKN, Community. At the same time, government cuts continues. All of
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, there is a slow, too slow some these dampened expectations breed
the NHS, Serco and Unilever. might argue, recognition amongst a sense of uncertainty, a sense that
the European public that the things will never be quite the same
It is two years since we wrote the economies of the East are growing as they were before the financial
first report on trust for the CIPD: stronger and the locus of economic crisis.
Where has all the trust gone? control may be gradually shifting
(CIPD 2012). Yet trust still remains away from the hitherto prosperous In essence, people are not sure
centre stage. Levels of uncertainty West. The global restructuring that what the future holds for them.
amongst the general public remain was ongoing before the financial There are heightened levels of
high, with ‘trust in business leaders’ crisis continues with multinationals uncertainty. In summary, this has
receiving a rating where only 18% continuing to close unprofitable been caused by:
of people believe they are telling units (with the consequent loss
the truth and with politicians rated of jobs in the West) in favour 1 The erosion of certain
even lower at 13% (Edelman 2013). of acquisitions, joint ventures, unspoken but taken-for-granted
The CIPD Megatrends survey of strategic alliances or greenfield sites assumptions. These assumptions
December 2013 recorded only 37% in the East. A few multinationals included the idea that iconic
of employees trusting their senior are reported by the media to be institutions and respected
managers. avoiding paying tax within Western individuals were guided by a
societies in which they enjoy good set of values that embodied a
Scandals of fraud and misconduct profits. The rapid emergence of reliable sense of moral certainty.
persist within the banking sector the Occupy movement in 2011 These assumptions have been
and utility companies, with was symbolic of some of the brought into doubt by specific
individual journalists, media stars antagonism felt towards ‘big scandals that have been amplified
and politicians also coming under business’ in certain echelons of by coverage in the media.
scrutiny. These scandals come in society (Moran 2013). 2 A perception that for the great
waves despite concerted and sincere proportion of people their
attempts by business, church and Career prospects ‘ain’t what they standard of living has dropped
political leaders to smooth the used to be’ for the great mass of while their working lives intensify.

3 A perception that while an elite prosperity are shared within society their local teams (Hope-Hailey et al
continue to do well economically, – cannot be achieved unless we 2012, Lewicki et al 2006, Ferrin
their success cannot be learn to trust again. et al 2003).
replicated by the great mass of
people. Furthermore, there is a We know that high levels of The nature of communication is
perception that this elite do not trust will deliver the enabling also a factor. Transparency and
care about the less well off and conditions in which innovation, honesty is important in both formal
do not wish to share or distribute problem-solving, engagement and organisational communications
their wealth in order to help their knowledge-sharing will thrive within and interpersonal communications
broader society prosper. This is organisations (Dietz and Gillespie between managers and teams. So,
in contrast to the philanthropic 2011). In contrast, too much in some organisations there may be
values that guided some of the distrust creates stasis or, at worst, an over-reliance on technological
early founders of industry in the dysfunction. To enable people to communication at the expense of
UK. move into a state where they are face-to-face communication. Our
willing to experiment or change, discussions with employees in the
Recognising and appreciating that we need to increase people’s first report showed that in times
there are high levels of uncertainty propensity to trust (Ashleigh et al of crisis leaders need to turn up
in 2014 is key to understanding 2012) and simultaneously raise in person to face their employees
the need for trust. It is not that their leaders’ ability to accentuate in order to explain candidly the
every senior leader has become their demonstration of their own need for difficult or negative
a demon who cannot be trusted. trustworthiness. change. If there had been a breach
Certainly some leaders have found of trust, leaders were expected
themselves to be lacking but not all. To get the organisational to apologise for their actions or
Some leaders have maintained their change necessary across mistakes. People want to gauge
integrity. sectors, we need to get employees the trustworthiness of leaders by
to a psychological state where, watching their behaviour for real.
The perceived trust crisis may despite feeling vulnerable, In a well-designed podcast, one
instead be more about people uncomfortable and unsure about can ‘act’ as able, benevolent and
demanding and needing a greater the future, they are willing to take awash with integrity, but in a face-
and more overt demonstration of the risk of trying new working to-face encounter through Q and A,
trustworthiness from their leaders patterns or practices (Rousseau et al employees feel they can really assess
and organisations precisely because 1998). these characteristics of their senior
they are feeling a higher level leaders.
of uncertainty about the future. However, what is also clear from the
In essence, people need more first CIPD report is that many factors ‘Spin’ by corporate communications
reassurance that their leaders or also come into play as antecedents departments was disliked intensely
institutions are reliable. They expect of trust (Hope-Hailey et al 2012). by employees. Interviewees told
more ability, benevolence, integrity The characteristics of the workforce us that they did not want to be
and certainty from their leaders themselves are also important as protected from bad news. In our
because they feel a fear about the well as the characteristics of its earlier research it was clear that
future. leaders and the organisation. Is some senior leaders who attended
there a propensity to trust within meetings in person, shared
Yet the paradox remains the same the followers of leaders? Is the information and decisions in a
as in the last report: while we are workforce disposed to trust their straightforward and open way,
feeling uncertain, we also need leaders even when they do not like however bad the consequences,
high levels of trust in order to get what is being proposed? Has the were trusted more than those
back to an economic, social and organisation built up a trust fund it leaders who tried to protect their
political certainty we once enjoyed. can draw upon in times of change customers or employees from the
We are not trusting because we or crisis? In other words, what is the truth. In high-trust organisations,
feel uncertain and yet the very trust legacy at any one time? How there was also an emphasis on open
things that will make us feel more much trust has the organisation communication and a recognition
certain – a renewed sense of already ‘banked’ from its different of the legitimacy and the right
morality within society, continual trust relationships in the past with amongst different stakeholder
growth, opportunity for all, a customers or senior managers, or groups (for example customers,
perceived justice in how the fruits of colleagues or line managers and unions, partners, workforces, NGOs,

government) to have a voice and be behaviours and actions of those 1 The cultivation of trustworthy
heard. leaders and the consistency in leaders
which that ability, benevolence and Are trustworthy leaders born or
Partnerships as a governance integrity is applied over time (Mayer made? Are some organisations
structure score higher on trust et al 1995, Dietz and Den Hartog consciously trying to create
relationships between senior 2006). Leaders need to demonstrate trustworthy leaders through the
managers and lower levels partly these character traits consistently design and implementation of their
because their structures built in and openly over time to their HR procedures and processes? If so,
a necessity for senior leaders to followers (Whitener et al 1998). what do those systems look like?
present themselves as accountable The most positive finding from the Do organisations differ in how they
to other partners within the first study was that even when they cultivate or grow leaders?
organisation. A further finding were tasked with implementing
was that leaders needed to change programmes resulting in 2 What sorts of organisational
demonstrate a concern for other restructuring or redundancies, some cultures or ecosystems allow
groups of people, a genuine interest leaders were able to reassure their trustworthiness to thrive?
and worry for their well-being – employees that they, as leaders, What sorts of cultures enable
‘benevolence’ in action. It’s not could still be trusted. Their ability a leader to enact trustworthy
enough to think kind thoughts to demonstrate high levels of behaviour on a day-to-day basis?
inside one’s head. A leader needs trustworthiness at these critical If the HR systems seek to shape
to show their benevolence through times counteracted the destabilising and develop the attributes of
their words and deeds (Hope-Hailey effects of uncertainty and anxiety trustworthy leaders in individuals,
et al 2012, Lewicki et al 2006, about the future. what sort of climates and cultures
Ferrin et al 2003). enable these individuals to then
We want to understand more grow and practise trustworthiness
For any employee, when making about this. How is it that some on a day-to-day basis? Do these
the decision of whether to commit leaders retain the trust of their cultures or ecosystems vary by
to an organisational change followers even when having to industry sector or organisational
programme, a key consideration implement unpopular or difficult history? Does trustworthiness mean
is the trustworthiness of the strategies? So the focus of these the same thing in the aerospace
senior leaders of that organisation next two reports is on the nature industry as it means in a retail
(Farndale et al 2011). Before of trustworthy senior leadership. business?
committing to take action which We want to find out what sort
employees perceive might involve of HR systems and processes in 3 What behaviours make for
personal risk and a threat to their organisations cultivate trustworthy trustworthy leadership?
own sense of well-being, employees leaders. What sort of organisational The third report to be published
weigh up the situation. They assess cultures or ecosystems surrounding in the autumn will focus on
the ability or competence of their those leaders on an everyday basis behaviours. How do those who
leaders to lead the organisation, enable them to thrive? In essence, work with trustworthy leaders
the benevolence and goodwill our attention is focused on the experience them as people? What
displayed by those leaders towards following themes: do they do and how do they
other stakeholders, the perceived behave? How do their behaviours
integrity or moral code guiding the in the twenty-first century match
Figure 1: Drivers of trustworthiness (Dietz and Den Hartog 2006)
Ability Benevolence Integrity Predictability

the behaviours identified by We hope you find this report The best we can hope for is that
the academic research done on enlightening and heartening. There we eventually stop talking about
trustworthy leaders at the end of are some fine-grained examples of trust and we return to a situation
the twentieth century? Or, in the good practice, inspiring examples where trust is a taken-for-granted
years following the financial crisis, of great leaders and innovative assumption within the workplace and
are different practices expected by examples of solutions to the beyond. We hope the knowledge
followers and enacted by leaders? great trust conundrum which has contained within this report helps us
Figure 2 below shows how the dominated organisational life for some way along that road.
different reports link together. the last few years.
Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey
Dean of the School of
Figure 2 Management, University of Bath
Report 1
March 2012
Where has all the trust gone?
Key finding:
The importance of senior leaders
Report 2
April 2014
Cultivating trustworthy senior leaders
Growing trustworthy Organisational cultures

leaders through and ecosystems –
HR systems and processes context and culture
Report 3
Autumn 2014
Experiencing trustworthy leaders:
working for and with trustworthy leaders

The pillars of trustworthiness of a combination of selection they say but also you’d find
The literature tells us that practices. Organisations that seem it hard to empower others if
trustworthiness is defined based to think of trustworthiness mainly you didn’t build trust. You’d
on four characteristics: ability, as a way of behaving often do also find it hard to run a team
benevolence, integrity and not directly refer to the concept well or be a member of a
predictability (Mayer et al 1995, of trust in the various stages of team well if you didn’t build
Dietz and Den Hartog 2006). the HR lifecycle. Instead, it is for trust. So, I actually think it’s
These four characteristics form the example implicitly embedded in the really important but it’s not
foundational pillars of trust: leadership behaviours that these until I started to properly think
organisations see as desirable. Trust about it that it’s actually the
• Ability describes perceptions
of leadership competence in
doing their job or fulfilling their
role.
here is more about the how of
leadership rather than the what. As
such, it focuses on behaviours and
ways of doing rather than on the
Worldwide)
’
one thread. (Manager, BBC
Similarly, the John Lewis Partnership

• Benevolence describes a concern stringent facts and performance (JLP) has identified a set of
for others beyond leaders’ own metrics. behaviours based on which it
needs and showing levels of care selects, develops and assesses
and compassion. This applies for BBC Worldwide, the its leaders. As trust is deeply
• Integrity defines how commercially focused and wholly embedded within the organisation,
trustworthiness is linked to owned subsidiary of the BBC, where its structure, culture and daily
being seen as someone who trust is really at the heart of what interactions of its partners, it has
adheres to principles of fairness the organisation is about. Given the developed a sense of implicitness
and honesty while avoiding organisation’s emphasis on cultural which means that it is not
hypocrisy. values, the ability to demonstrate explicitly articulated but underlying
• Predictability emphasises how behaviours that are congruent everything that happens in the
leadership behaviour has to be with these values is central. These organisation:
consistent or regular over time. are initially assessed during the
Leadership selection,
development and assessment
practices
interview stage and continue to play
an important role in the daily social
interactions and work relationships.
Rather than talking explicitly about
‘‘ I think it comes out of the
behaviours, of the leadership
behaviours so I think it falls as
part of what we’re assessing
In our study we were able to trust, it runs through HR practices although we don’t articulate
identify a range of practices and like a red thread: it as clearly as that. But trust,
processes that organisations use as an organisation, trust is
in the selection, development and
assessment of trustworthiness of
their current and future leaders.
In some of these trust is explicitly
‘‘ I’d say yes it probably does,
and more so than we
probably thought we had,
as I said before, a list of
important to us; it’s what we’re
built on basically but if I had to
articulate how do we assess,
well we don’t assess trust in
stated. In others it seems more competencies that we look a nice neat package, but it’s
implicitly embedded. In the first at around communication there.
part of this section, we will provide and empowerment of others
a general overview of these, and relationship-building but My perception is that we
emphasising practices that seem trust, kind of, runs throughout just take trust for granted in
particularly innovative compared all of it. I don’t think we’ve what we do because of who
with others. sat down and said ‘are they we are. And I think that’s
trustworthy?’ at an interview. underlying in those behaviours
1 Selecting trustworthy leaders
Our case organisations make use
But I think it’s that feeling
you get from someone, what
is my personal perception.
(Manager, John Lewis)
’
This is also what we saw in Day Innovative practice competencies, skills and behaviours
Lewis. Day Lewis is the UK’s and which are underlying leadership
Europe’s largest independently Values-based interviewing (VBI) development. Organisations do this
owned pharmacy chain and includes follows a similarly in-depth in different ways. One particularly
more than 200 pharmacies across approach as interviewees are innovative example is that of Serco.
the country. At Day Lewis trust asked about their beliefs and
is very important given its family behaviours. As such it helps to
business structure. Trustworthiness identify candidates who are a Innovative practice
is assessed at recruitment stage by ‘better fit’ with the organisation
focusing on candidates’ ‘values and based on them having the Living the values (Serco)
attitudes’. ‘right values’. In turn, VBI helps describes how the organisation
to recruit those that are likely to has created global consistency
In addition, there were also three be more engaged in their roles across all parts of the
particularly innovative selection as they fit with the culture of organisation by building a
practices. This includes John Lewis the organisation: ‘candidates common language for what
Partnership’s (JLP) use of whole- have the right attitude; they it means to be a leader at
person interviewing, Oxford stay longer and are positive’. Serco in its new leadership
University Hospital’s (OUH) piloting model. This is put into practice
of values-based interviewing (VBI) Selection involving stakeholder through supporting materials
and selection involving stakeholder engagement describes how and resources which help the
engagement used by the Church of in some public or non-profit organisation to communicate
England (CofE)1 and OUH. organisations such as the and create meaning around
Church of England and the leadership. Engagement case
Oxford University Hospital studies have been developed
Innovative practice Trust external stakeholders are to identify best practice and
involved in the selection process highlight the how of leadership.
Whole-person interviewing
of future leaders. This may Here stories are presented and
describes an interview
involve the larger congregation shared which are supposed to
technique where candidates
such as in the case of the CofE, exemplify what it means to be
are not only asked in relation
who are consulted through living the values of Serco:
to previous experiences in
the Church newspaper. In the
terms of work in order to test These people are Living the
case of OUH, in the selection
their capability or competency, Values; you just need to read
of nurses, stakeholder events
but also to share stories from the case study and you think,
have been carried out with
their personal life: ‘You’re ‘well if you want to know
staff and local groups to gather
asking for examples both in that the say/do gap is about
feedback, which is provided to
the work life and in the home integrity of values hanging
and taken into account by the
life. You’re looking at the on the wall and being
interview panel.
range of their career and not behaved, here are some
just their permanent job.’ This great examples’. (Senior
allows recruitment decision- Manager, Serco)
makers in John Lewis to assess 2 Developing trustworthy leaders
a person holistically in order Generally, there is a range of
to ‘allow the whole light and practices in place that organisations There are other examples of
colour of the individual to use to develop trustworthiness organisations as well who
come through’. in their leaders. These include are concerned about creating
leadership models, development a common set of leadership
programmes, action learning competencies in their development
and master classes. These can be practices of trustworthy leaders.
grouped into two common themes: This includes the Church of
aligning leadership competencies England, which relies on a common
and individualised development. language around leadership as
1
Our study is based on interviews senior leaders engage in what
with senior leaders in one diocese, and Aligning leadership competencies they call ‘development through
not all these practices are universal describes organisational efforts pilgrimage’. This describes how
throughout the Church of England. to create a common set of leaders are developed through

sharing stories at their local parishes An additional example is again the organisations explicitly refer to trust
about what exemplary leadership Church of England, where we see in these practices.
behaviours look like. development as strongly individually
driven. Here the organisation This is for example the case
Storytelling and ‘storysharing’ is provides a range of development for Serco, where trust is one
also used in Her Majesty’s Revenue opportunities that members can join of the elements tested in their
& Customs (HMRC), the UK’s tax as part of the continuing Ministerial engagement survey and forms
authority, where it is made use of in Development Programme, part of the new performance
senior leadership development: including work-based learning development review (PDR) process.
groups, coaching and mentoring This is linked to the new leadership
‘‘ They are sharing what it feels

like being a leader going
through huge organisation
programmes. These are aligned
with the organisation’s values and
beliefs around trust and hence help
model and forms part of the how of
leadership in Serco.
change.
’
On the other hand, we also
identified a set of practices that
to develop trustworthiness in their
leaders.
Innovative practice
In the case of Unilever, trust is
not explicitly stated in any of its
performance assessments. However,
by assessing the ability of its leaders
are concerned with the individual in having achieved strategic change
development needs of each leader Live 360-degree feedback goals, Unilever evaluates what
and asking leaders to take initiative (BBC Worldwide) describes they see as central to trustworthy
for their learning. This helps to a particularly innovative leaders, ability:
cultivate trustworthiness through development practice where
developing a greater awareness
of oneself as a leader and one’s
development needs, as the best
leaders ‘tend to be the most
future leaders of their Inspire
programme participate in a
live feedback session of up
to eight people consisting
‘‘ I think ability with assessment
is very much about what
they’ve done. So, your abilities,
that competence, it’s what
confident themselves, most self- of peers, people they report they’ve actually delivered so
aware’ (Senior Manager, Unilever). to and others who report to if you look at any of your
them. Candidates here receive interview techniques, you’ll
This is for example the case in JLP, direct and live feedback, which always be looking at what did
where leaders are encouraged to is particularly ‘powerful’, they need as opposed to what
take initiative for self-development: ‘insightful’ and ‘informative’ for did they support, what did they
the participants. The feedback actually deliver, what was the
‘‘ We do encourage self-
development, personally
own development as
generated is then incorporated
into the candidate’s individual
development plan.
impact of what they delivered.
So, for me, that’s all about
ability. If you’re looking at it
opposed to anything else.
(Senior Manager, JLP)
’
Similarly, ABN AMRO, our financial
3 Assessing and rewarding
trustworthiness
from a promotion perspective,
that ability will come through
in the delivery of the 3+1s
[three business objectives and
case study organisation, uses an In terms of performance one development objective],
e-survey in order for their leaders to assessment, the majority of the stretch of the 3+1s, etc. So,
assess their individual development
needs:
our participating organisations
have a range of assessment
practices in place. This includes
(Senior Manager, Unilever)
’
that’s a relatively easy one.
‘‘ The personal e-survey is more

for the individual need to see,
okay if I’m not having the level
of leadership that is required
annual performance reviews
(Aberdeenshire, John Lewis, BBC
Worldwide, ABN AMRO), nine-
box performance grids (John
Similarly, BAE Systems, the British
defence, security and aerospace
company, which also follows
a performance-driven culture,
of me I can work on the Lewis, BBC, ABN AMRO), key assesses its leaders’ trustworthiness
development needs throughout performance indicators (John implicitly. In addition to ability,
the programme and after the Lewis, ABN AMRO, Serco), here the consistent ability to
ABN AMRO)
’
programme. (Senior Manager, balanced scorecard (Serco) and
performance frameworks (BAE).
Only some of our participating
meet performance targets, or
predictability, is seen as an indicator
of trustworthiness. A central

piece to this is BAE Systems’
Total Performance Leadership
Framework, which is built around
four key elements: perform, assess,
‘‘ This is essentially the reward
package. You’ve got base
pay, you’ve got short-term
incentives and you’ve got long-
in the stories that people tell about
leaders in the organisation.
Summary
develop and reward. All of these term incentives. They’re applied As this shows, our case organisations
are centred around BAE’s central to the population of leaders. make use of a range of practices
leadership mission: leading for total Plus the benefits that are to select, develop and assess
performance.
Important to note is that the reward

practices differ mainly according
’
relevant to the country.
In addition, the organisation’s own

cultural values and legacy influences
trustworthiness. In summary, we
get the sense that it is much easier
for the organisations participating
in our study to assess and develop
to the industry context in which the type of performance rewards trustworthiness when they associate
organisations operate. For example, that it offers. By rewarding leaders it with ability and predictability.
in the case of Aberdeenshire, a in a way that aligns with these In cases where trustworthiness
public service organisation, there is values, trustworthy behaviours are is mainly about integrity and
no performance-based pay. Instead, developed. A particularly innovative benevolence, some organisations
jobs are graded in accordance with reward practice is used in JLP. make use of development tools such
the national job evaluation scheme, as master classes, activity-based
and if difficulties are experienced Innovative practice learning and case studies. However,
in recruiting and retaining certain assessing these quantitatively is
staff, market forces payments may Non-financial rewards (JLP) much more challenging and hence
be made: John Lewis’s focus on there is a stronger focus on making
benevolence means that judgements based on personal
‘‘ It’s more a market forces

payment rather than incentive
in that sense, but we don’t
have bonuses or profit-
they emphasise non-financial
rewards over financial
incentives. As such, it offers its
employees a wider range and
interactions and having a sense or
feel of the person.
An important point in relation
’
sharing. (Senior HR Manager,
Aberdeenshire)
In terms of talent retention,

breadth of reward packages
based on what they value
most, including holiday centres,
subsidy for theatre or opera
to trustworthiness was made by
an interviewee from GKN, who
suggests that ‘the organisation
has to value trustworthiness for it
this poses a challenge to the tickets and sports clubs. As to flourish’. We would think that
organisation as they see people a result they attract, develop all of our organisations are high-
shifting to higher-paid jobs in and reward leaders who trust environments and hence they
other industries or geographical align with their meaning of clearly care about either explicitly or
locations: trustworthiness. implicitly developing and assessing
trustworthiness in their leaders.
‘‘ We don’t pay everybody as

much as we would ideally like
to: in the current financial
climate we can’t – and there’s
Some of the organisations still
experience challenges in setting
up a consistent approach to
performance assessment. This
Thus, our analysis suggests that, on
the one hand, focusing explicitly on
trust in the selection, development
a real constraint there. We includes for example the HMRC, and assessment of future leaders
can’t compete with oil and where leaders seem to struggle takes courage, particularly when
’
gas. (Senior Manager,
Aberdeenshire)
On the other hand, GKN, the

with holding difficult conversations
around low-performing employees.
The organisation is currently
addressing that concern through
faced with the preconceptions of
some who might not think of it as
important:
long-established global engineering

group with approximately 48,000
employees in over 30 countries,
operates in a financially driven
focused development and talent
management activities. For
others, such as the Church of
England, there are no formal
‘‘ We’ve got the whole toolkit,
we’ve got everything there. It
is just how we use it. We can
choose to really emphasise that
environment and offers its performance criteria in place. trust is important to us and
employees performance-based pay Instead performance here is appoint people who are clearly
and incentives, which are rolled out assessed through forms of collective trustworthy, or who set about
annually on a worldwide basis: sanctioning, accessible for example earning the trust of people. Or

we can choose not to. That’s
how we will be judged and
that’s how everyone will act in
the organisation. Because they
will all look up. If you look up
now you see a group of people
HMRC)
’
you can trust. (HR Manager,
On the other hand, what we also

saw in our case studies is that
organisations seem to have a
dominant preference for certain
characteristics in how they define
trustworthiness. This does not
mean that each of these is mutually
exclusive. Instead, in many cases our
participants describe a combination
of characteristics. However,
what seems to be important is
understanding the underlying
assumptions that organisations
have in mind when thinking about
trust and trustworthiness as this
seems crucial in order to cultivate
trustworthiness in leaders. These
assumptions are part of what we
will refer to as the ecosystem of
trust and will discuss in depth in the
following section.

2 The ecosystem of trust
In this section we look more closely are underpinning work. As such, knowledge. One of our participants
at the organisational ecosystem that leaders should know ‘people in the refers to this in the following way:
allows trustworthy leaders to thrive. organisation’ as well as ‘people
Types of trustworthiness
Let us begin with the variations in
the meaning of trustworthiness.
outside their organisation’ who may
be central to their department and
task.
‘‘ I think it’s about… trusting,
having confidence in somebody
else’s knowledge, their skills,…
so that you don’t – you’re
Based on the characteristics of One of the examples for this type not second guessing them all
trustworthiness, we distinguish
these four types (Figure 3).
Type 1 – Emphasising ability

of organisation is Unilever, which is
structurally divided into a range of
different divisions and specialisms.
As such, to work effectively, people
’
the time. (Senior Manager,
Unilever)
Another participant likened the

Our empirical material suggests across the organisation have to importance of showing capability to
that some organisations define rely on the expertise and specialist the scenario of a pilot flying a plane.
trustworthiness strongly based knowledge of their colleagues In the role of the passenger, trust
on capability and competency. in order to provide high-quality would be primarily defined based
A trustworthy leader is someone products to their customers: on the pilot’s skills, knowledge
who is capable of ‘getting the and qualification, rather than their
job done’ for which they carry
responsibility. This involves a variety
of skills and capabilities. First, there
‘‘ This whole structure is
dependent on me trusting the
experts to give me something
potential to be compassionate or
act in a moral way:
is the technical element as leaders

should have the appropriate level
which I can then go and deploy
and consumers are going to
‘‘ It’s a bit like when you’re on
a plane: you trust the pilot
of technical knowledge that is
required of them in their field.
This may include an awareness
of processes and products. Also,
’
like. (Senior Manager, Unilever)
In an organisation such as Unilever,

perceptions of trustworthiness
is adequately qualified to do
whatever they are meant
to be doing. So, within the
competence there is trust
capability is contained in knowing are strongly dependent on having of an individual and there’s
about the social dynamics that confidence in someone’s skills and also trust of functions of the
Figure 3: Types of trustworthiness
Type 1 Type 2
Emphasising ability Emphasising benevolence
Trustworthiness
Type 3 Type 4
Emphasising integrity Emphasising predictability

organisation, the competence While there are potential strengths When asked to describe a
to do something and this is around assessing trustworthiness trustworthy leader, a senior member
where you’ll see variability mainly based on ability, such of JLP uses terms such as I ‘felt
within colleagues even within as sustained performance, that he cared about me as an
a function that you know achievement and objectivity, a too individual’, he ‘made it a fun and
somebody is more competent great emphasis may also come dynamic working environment’
than the other in terms of with drawbacks. For example, as and he ‘demonstrated his ability
Manager, Unilever)
’
what they’re doing. (Senior
Other organisations also emphasise

numerical assessment of leadership
potential is at the core, this may
come with the risk of ignoring
the wider story of the individual.
to work the internal politics to
the advantage of us as a team,
as a whole’. All of these are
representative of benevolence,
the importance of ability in As one participant describes, this hence this is important for JLP.
order to perceive someone as may evoke a ‘tell culture’ or ‘blame
trustworthy. This includes BAE culture’ rather than a culture The second example of an
Systems. Here ability is mainly that is about conversations and organisation that clearly
linked to performance, evident also development. In addition, a too emphasises benevolence is the
in the strong focus on numerical great emphasis on ability may also Church of England (CofE), the
data in leader assessment and mean that leaders show behaviours officially established Christian
development. In order to be seen as that are detrimental to the wider church in England. Trust, and
a trustworthy leader, performance good of the organisation as they particularly benevolence, is central
targets have to be met and emphasise individual achievements to the CofE, most evident in their
exceeded, hence capability and over collective goals. culture of compassion. Here a
competency is key: trustworthy leader is someone
who shows that they care and has
‘‘
Potential risks of Type 1
Senior leaders have the their employees’ best interests at
responsibility of building • A too strong emphasis on heart, combined with an aura of
winning teams, high- numerical data may ignore genuineness:
performing teams. So the the wider story of the
‘‘
perform bit is objective-setting individual. A trustworthy person, I mean
… being able to articulate how • A too strong focus on ability I think it’s very interesting
we go about differentiation of may lead to undesirable we’ve got a new Archbishop,
performance, how we classify cultures as leaders try and I think he’s commanding
performance ratings themselves, to emphasise individual quite a lot of trust, people are
so we understand what good achievements over collective feeling they can trust him. I
looks like. We understand goals. think it’s about understanding
what exceptional looks like. that someone has your best
You have to hit everything and interests at heart, that they
exceed everything to become Type 2 – Emphasising benevolence really care about what happens
Systems)
’
exceptional. (Manager, BAE
This expectation to show capability

Examples of organisations which
emphasise benevolence in
their interpretation of trust and
trustworthiness are the John Lewis
to you, your team, whatever.
That’s probably the main thing
actually; that they genuinely
care what happens rather than
is so deeply engrained in the Partnership (JLP) and the Church of just kind of treating you as a
organisation’s operation that one England (CofE). Most defining about unit of production or a cog in a
respondent even refers to it as a
‘slam dunk’.
An additional example is that of

JLP is that it is employee-owned.
As a result, strong relationships and
interpersonal interaction are central
to the organisation. Underpinning
’
machine. (Senior Leader, CofE)
Someone who is perceived to be

trustworthy ‘knows how to love’
GKN. GKN has a financially driven these is a strong sense of and ‘pour himself out for people’.
culture which values ability strongly: benevolence, also summarised in The relationship between leader
the organisation’s core principle, and individual is characterised by
‘‘ Meeting your targets and

objectives. It’s all about track
record and that’s the price of
‘Principle #1’, which sees the
ultimate purpose of the Partnership
as ensuring the happiness and
servitude. At an organisational level,
listening to individual concerns,
recognising individual needs and
’
entry [to leadership]. satisfaction of its members. taking care of members of the

organisation in times of crisis Type 3 – Emphasising integrity the right intentions can be seen
are all defining characteristics of Here, organisations mainly perceive as directly linked to perceptions of
trustworthiness. of a leader as trustworthy when integrity. Integrity also manifests
they act with integrity. An example itself in being honest, transparent
The third example that we would of this is BBC Worldwide, where and not exploiting internal or
like to present here is that of Day integrity is embedded within the external stakeholders. For example,
Lewis. The organisation has a strong brand and exists in relation to its HMRC’s new CEO is perceived
trust culture, which is particularly members as well as its external to be seen as trustworthy as
evident in its high level of support stakeholders: she ‘tells the truth, doesn’t back
and concern shown to its employees: down and doesn’t shy away from
‘‘ There is a high level of trust,

care and respect for employees,
which is paid back in the form
‘‘ [The BBC] is a highly trusted
brand and maintaining that
is really important. We would
never do anything that
things’. Thus, communicating with
superiors in a way that recognises
their ‘right to know the truth’ is
central here.
of loyalty and dedication. Day would intentionally harm [the
Lewis has created an excellent
culture of mutual support
and respect supported by
effective initiatives such as
reputation of the brands].
’
In addition, the events of the past
and the resulting public scrutiny
None of our case organisations
really identifies any downsides to
behaving with integrity – quite
the opposite. A great majority of
CSR, fun days, the annual staff has further emphasised the need our respondents suggest that a
conference, monthly Friday for BBC Worldwide to be acting trustworthy leader for them is first
lunch involving support office with integrity. When being asked and foremost someone who is
and warehouse staff – all to describe an example of a open, honest and transparent. This
’
reinforce the family ethos.
(Investors in People Report, Day
Lewis)
trustworthy leader, participants
suggest the following:
is deemed particularly important
in situations of crisis. Also, many
articulate the need to increase their
The risk of emphasising benevolence

over other characteristics such as
ability, for example, may mean that
‘‘ She openly communicates.
She’s very honest. She’s quite
transparent with what she
does and where she’s trying
levels of integrity with internal and
external stakeholders by behaving
with high integrity.
organisations could particularly to go – and she’s got very However, it seems as if integrity
experience low work accountability good leadership skill, so she needs to be accompanied by a
from individuals. Members of Day will set the direction. So level of care and compassion in
Lewis voiced this concern, for you’re very clear the path you delivering difficult messages and
example, but are actively addressing need to follow, rather than finding the appropriate channels.
this through various structural perhaps being shrouded in Trustworthy leaders need to also
changes. As a result, organisations mystery. Even though she have the ability to deliver difficult
such as JLP and Day Lewis are sits away from us, she’s very messages in the appropriate way
concerned with developing a more approachable and she’s also using the right means. One of our
adult relationship between their very clear on what she’s trying participants from Aberdeenshire
members as performance and ability to achieve. She’s just open Council describes this ability as
have started to play a stronger and honest with us, which telling people in a ‘gentle way’
role in leadership selection and immediately just creates and in ‘a way they can handle it
development.
Potential risks of Type 2

’
trust. (Senior Manager, BBC
Worldwide)
An additional example of an
and absorb it’. As such, there may
be a risk that organisations ignore
the other pillars of trustworthiness
such as ability, benevolence and
• A too strong focus on care
and compassion may result organisation that emphasises predictability when putting too
in a paternalistic culture integrity in their interpretation of much emphasis on integrity.
where work accountability trustworthiness is HMRC. Following
and ownership is low. a challenging couple of years,
participants described how they
• High benevolence may lead trust the new leadership team
to low acceptance of process as they are planning ‘big change
and practices. with the right intentions’. Having

Potential risks of Type 3 and customers expect it to work like them for taking a risk and
a well-oiled machine in terms of its praise them even more if they
’
• May risk ignoring other processes and procedures. succeed. (Senior Manager,
pillars of trust such as Aberdeenshire)
ability, benevolence and However, focusing too much
‘‘
predictability by focusing too on predictability runs the risk of …hold others accountable and
much on integrity. stifling innovation and personal themselves but on the other
development, as a senior manager hand also allow people to try
in BBC Worldwide suggests: and learn and make mistakes.
Type 4 – Emphasising predictability So although we hold people
Aberdeenshire Council is one
of our case organisations
where predictability is seen
‘‘ …that’s almost seen as a
negative that people can’t
be spontaneous. They can’t
accountable and that to be a,
you know, theme, they should
also have the space to make
to be important. This diverse
organisation, which employs
people in a wide variety of roles,
emphasises predictability in the
’
innovate.
It also seems as if predictability

may be associated with giving
mistakes without immediately
’
being punished for it. (Senior
Manager, Unilever)
context of behavioural consistency. employees less space to explore and Potential risks of Type 4
Here, leaders are seen as make mistakes. As such it reduces • A too strong focus on
trustworthy when they ‘do what the possibilities for empowerment predictability may stifle
they say they’re going to do’. which are perceived to be important innovation and employee
by many of our respondents in empowerment.
In addition, predictability is leadership development:
strongly linked to consistency
in performance. This includes
expectations in terms of delivering
on deadlines and standards that
have previously been agreed
‘‘ …so, we are risk-aware, and
we will take risks, where
appropriate – and help
employees to be creative
Factors influencing the meaning
of trustworthiness
We identified some overarching
similarities in our case organisations
upon. At an organisational level, and innovative and take a that enable us to group them
predictability is ‘one thing the risk. Don’t punish them for based on their definitions of
council is good at’ as its members doing things differently, praise trustworthiness. We came up
Figure 4: Factors influencing the meaning of trustworthiness
Industry
context
Factors
External
Organisational
relationship
context
context

with the overview in Figure 4. This ahead. A similar development also as you get defensive, you
overview shows the factors that happens in Day Lewis, which is undermine the question and
form part of the trust ecosystem. trying to strengthen its processes to you create an environment
increase task ownership. in which people are not
First, across our organisations, we comfortable to challenge. But
see how the industry context plays Third, the extent to which external when you’re accountable, you
an important role in determining relationships are central to the way can say, yes, that is what it is
meanings of trustworthiness. of working of the organisation tends and I’m comfortable in my own
For example, in public service to influence the focus they put on skin and I made that choice
organisations such as Aberdeenshire trust. BBC Worldwide, for example, because the business charges
Council, predictability is key, given by the nature of its financial me with the responsibility
the nature of work in this sector. operations and integration with the of making those decisions
Similarly, organisations that operate
in very specialist contexts, such as
BAE Systems and GKN, emphasise
the ability of their leaders, linking
BBC, has to show accountability and
openness to its customers/audiences.
This in turn means that the
organisation puts a strong emphasis
(Senior Manager, John Lewis)
’
because that’s what my job is.
This is important because employees

with the strong technical and on integrity. This is also the case for want their leaders to be role models
knowledge focus of this sector. ABN AMRO, where external trust for them, someone they can aspire
relations have suffered as a result to be like and connect with at a
Second, the organisational context of the financial crisis, particularly as more personal level:
itself plays an important role. stakeholders have questioned the
This includes elements such as
organisational heritage, structure,
size and strategy. As we see in
the case of JLP, for example, its
lack of integrity in this sector.
What we also see is that in order to

be seen as trustworthy, leaders do
‘‘ I think being a role model is
more than only from nine to
five. People want to see in a
role model what kind of person
partnership structure emphasises not have to be perfect at all times. you are, how you act with your
relational working and personal
interactions. As such, benevolence
rated particularly strongly in
Many of our participants across
various organisations described
how they are willing to accept that
ABN AMRO)
’
wife and children. (Manager,
importance. In addition, the

organisation’s prior history or legacy
their leaders make mistakes without
necessarily losing trust in them,
‘‘ They should be able to
have a laugh and a joke as
as well as its future vision influence
how they think of trust. As such,
even though benevolence has
played a strong role in the case of
as long as they are honest about
it and allow others to hold them
accountable:
’
well. (Senior Manager, BBC
Worldwide)
Trustworthiness as explicitly
JLP, the organisation’s future vision
is to become more commercially
and capability focused, which puts
greater emphasis on ability looking
‘‘ It is about accountability
actually. It’s how to be
challenged without being
defensive because as soon
stated and implicitly embedded
In addition to distinguishing
between the various meanings that
organisations seem to propose in
Figure 5: Trustworthiness as explicitly stated and implicitly embedded
Explicity stated
Trustworthiness
Implicity embedded

relation to trustworthiness, we also but is ‘subliminal and part of the foremost about having specific
identified differences in terms of psyche’. Trust here is seen as an skills and delivering results, often
how trust manifests itself in various ‘umbrella above management and measurable in relation to a set of
contexts. We here distinguish leaders’ and is seen as ‘special’. KPIs. At the same time, leaders are
between explicitly stated notions required to show evidence of a
of trust and trust as something Similarly for the Church of England, proven track record and consistent
that is more implicitly embedded trust manifests itself most strongly performance vis-à-vis a range
(Figure 5). at the relationship level. This of goals. From this perspective
includes the relationship with God, trustworthiness is something an
Explicit statements of trust are most which is strongly trust-based, as organisation can test and assess
often found in an organisation’s well as the interactions with the fairly easily. Thus, here the focus is
values and mission statements. congregation and other clergy. In on the what of leadership defined
In many organisations trust is addition, based on the religious through measurable performance
embedded in its guiding values. This principles contained in the holy indicators.
includes for example the HMRC, writings of the Bible, trust is seen
which has the Civil Service Values of as something that is fundamentally On the other hand, organisations
honesty, integrity, impartiality and given rather than something that that seem to associate
objectivity at its heart. needs to be expressed explicitly. trustworthiness mainly with
showing particular behaviours tend
Similarly, in the case of Serco, trust Trustworthiness as capability or to fall into type 2 or type 3. These
is one of its foundational building behaviour organisations care mainly about
blocks. ‘To build trust and respect’ is This distinction leads to another set integrity and benevolence. For
one of Serco’s governing principles. of conclusions around the meaning leaders to be seen as trustworthy
Thus, trust is explicitly stated as of trustworthiness. This links to the they have to behave in a way that
part of the organisation’s values. dominant understandings in any is congruent with the organisation’s
It is these values that ‘are a key organisational context about where values as well as a broader set of
reason many individuals choose to trustworthiness resides in leaders, moral codes. Also, how leaders
join’ Serco. People who join Serco either as a capability or behaviour interact with their staff, for
do so because they want to ‘serve (Figure 6). example the need to show care
communities’. and compassion, is perceived to be
Organisations that see important. Here, trustworthiness
But trust can also be something trustworthiness mainly as a becomes more difficult to test as
implicit which exists at a deeper capability tend to fall into type 1 it mainly exists embedded in the
level. This is, for example, the case and type 4 in that they emphasise how of leadership, which exists
at Day Lewis, where trust is not ability and predictability. Being in leadership behaviours and
necessarily talked about explicitly a trustworthy leader is first and interactions.
Figure 6: Trustworthiness as capability and behaviour
Capability
Trustworthiness
Behaviour

Summary However, some characteristics of
In this section we have focused on trustworthiness appear to have
the ecosystem of trust. As such, we had more ‘slack’ than others.
have distinguished between four What this means is that in certain
types of organisation which each situations employees are willing to
emphasises one of the characteristics accept lower levels of some of the
of trustworthiness. Each of these attributes of trustworthiness, such
has strengths and weaknesses. as ability, while others have to be
Hence we are not suggesting that kept high at all times, for example
one is ‘better’ than the other. integrity.
Instead, there are combinations
of factors – such as the industry It is important to note that while
context, the organisational context the examples presented here seem
and the external relationship context to emphasise one characteristic
– which influence the meaning of of trustworthiness, this does not
trustworthiness. mean that other characteristics
are not important. For example, in
Our empirical material suggests that the case of Unilever, we detected
in order for leadership selection a strong focus on ability, evident
and development practices to in the organisation’s concern for
foster trustworthiness, these first knowledge, skill and expertise. At
of all need to be aligned with the the same time, however, acting
predominant interpretation of with integrity at all times is deeply
the meaning of trustworthiness embedded in the cultural heritage
within the particular organisation. of the organisation.
Thus we would propose that first,
developing an awareness of what As a result, we propose that rather
trustworthiness means in the than seeing these as mutually
organisation and then, second, exclusive and trying to fit each
setting up practices that support organisation into different types,
the development and assessment developing awareness of what
of trustworthiness which fits this trustworthiness means within a
meaning are important for the given context is a foundational
cultivation of trustworthy leaders. piece to develop trustworthy leaders
and organisations.
In order to illustrate this, for
Unilever, leaders first and foremost
have to be seen as being capable
of doing the job they are supposed
to do. The assessment practices
used by the organisation, such as
their ‘3+1 targets’ as part of their
annual performance review, put a
clear emphasis on the development
of ability, which in turn aligns with
their strategic emphasis:
‘‘ They have got a clear set of

targets, there are development
plans in place for people to
try and meet those targets
… we invest greatly in the
upscaling and development of
our people, which hopefully
’
enhances their ability. (Senior
Manager, Unilever)

3 The interplay between trust and
practices and policies
When we look at the interplay • by rewarding behaviours that is a suggestion that too strong a
between trust and leadership are perceived to be trustworthy, reliance on practices may result in
selection and development trust is recreated an environment where there is low
policies and practices, we realise • practices help to build evidence trust in people.
that most of our participating by formalising ‘gut feel’ and
organisations suggest that their ‘cross-referencing’ sources. In addition, there is also a concern
practices help to increase trust that as organisations introduce
by either strengthening the Strengthening trustworthiness more practices and policies, there
individual trustworthiness of their of organisations is little possibility for individuals
leaders and/or strengthening the Similarly, HR practices may help to earn trust. As we have seen
trustworthiness of the organisation to increase trustworthiness at an before, trust is built as individuals
itself. We summarise some of the organisational level by: are empowered and given space
themes in the following sections. for experimentation. However,
• creating platforms for when an organisation becomes
Strengthening trustworthiness conversations and open dialogue too concerned with adhering to
of individuals about trust policies, this space ceases to exist.
HR practices may help to increase • building trust relationships Similarly, policies and practices
individual trustworthiness in various across the organisation by only ‘come to life’ when they
ways: creating cross-team exchange are implemented by people who
line manager involvement believe in them being good for the
• selection techniques such • increasing consistency, organisation and the ‘right thing
as evidence-based, values- objectivity and transparency to do’, rather than a box-ticking
based and whole-person- through selection and exercise.
based interviewing, referrals development practices leading
as well as assessment centres to increased perceptions of So what then seems to be
build trustworthiness through integrity, inclusivity and hence important in order to create
increasing evidence about the higher levels of trust an environment of trust and
individual • receiving external recognition trustworthiness is that practices
• development practices such for practices helping to build and policies evolve alongside the
as action learning increase organisational trustworthiness personal and relational side of trust.
leader self-awareness around internally and externally. Trust is about accepting vulnerability
weaknesses and strengths which of someone else and, as we have
may build trust in oneself as When policies and practices shown in our previous report
well as the human element of challenge trust levels (Where has all the trust gone?), is
leadership While overall most of our primarily relational.
• development practices such participants described a positive
as master classes and training relationship between practices and However, a strong relational focus
courses increase consciousness trust levels, some also expressed may also challenge trust levels.
of the needs of others, such as their concern about a possible For example, when manager and
the need to trust and be trusted negative relationship between the employee are personally close,
• assessment practices such two. This is particularly the case this may hinder their ability to
as 360-degree feedback when there are perceived to be have those difficult and ‘hard
increase trust in individual ‘too many’ rules and regulations, conversations’, because when it’s
leaders by providing evidence which could be interpreted by ‘relationship-based people want to
of trustworthiness as well as individuals as ‘we don’t trust you be liked and it’s hard to find a way
creating trust relationships to do things’ or ‘we command to do that tough conversation in a
through open exchange and and control you to make sure the way that you’re still liked’ (Senior
sharing things are done’. As such, there Manager, BBC Worldwide).

Figure 7: Forms of trust
Relationally embedded
Forms of trust
Practice- and policy-driven
In other cases, a strong Some of our participants suggest The extent to which an organisation
relational focus may result in low that what is needed is a balance may favour one or the other
levels of accountability for one’s between these two by, for example, depends on a variety of factors,
work. letting go and taking control. such as its industry, culture,
Others talk about having a bit of history and so forth. For example,
Based on our research, we thus both: on the one hand a culture we may expect manufacturing
propose that organisations may where ‘trustworthiness becomes or technology organisations to
draw on two different forms of an automatic and the norm’ and emphasise policies and practices as
trust: relationally embedded trust on the other a framework in place well as safety, as we have seen in
and practice- and policy-driven that ‘ensures people act in a certain the case of BAE Systems. Others,
trust. Depending on various way that then delivers trust as an based on their legacy and type of
contextual factors, one of these outcome’ (Senior Manager, BBC organisational structure, may value
may be dominant. Worldwide). relationships more ‘by nature’, such
Figure 8: Getting the balance right between practice and policy and relational trust
Practice and
policy
High Balanced
process but approach −
impersonal high process
and non- and strongly
relational relational
Low trust Highly

because little personal and
or no process relational but
and non- low attention
relational to processes
Relational

is the case for John Lewis and BBC foster higher trust relationships to their stakeholders that they
Worldwide. by reducing the dependency on take their concerns seriously.
numerical controls. Striking the
We summarise our findings in balance between practices and Another example of a balanced
terms of the two forms of trust in process and relationships is an approach would be JLP. As we
the matrix above. There within, we ongoing concern for BAE’s HR have suggested previously,
distinguish between four types: professional, who in the long here trust relationships run
term would like to create a high- throughout the organisation as
• Highly personal and relational trust environment which enables a virtuous cycle connecting each
but low attention to process: a ‘lightness of processual and everyone: the individual,
Here relationships are the touch’ where consistency and the leader and the organisation
focus and this is where trust dynamism work in harmony: as a whole. Based on these
mainly resides. There is only relationships high levels of
low emphasis on practices
and processes to support
the development of trust.
An example of this type of
‘‘It’s trying to find that balance
between letting go in a culture
which actually likes controls.
And we’re engineers so tell
accountability co-exist with
benevolence towards each other.
Leaders here are encouraged to
take their employees with them
organisation is Day Lewis. Trust me what to do, all that sort and inspire them, rather than
is strong between the members of thing. But not letting go directing them on what to do:
of the organisation at an too much, not letting go
interpersonal level, supporting
‘most of what we do’. However,
in terms of HR processes Day
completely because I think
to just take everything away,
actually people will just look
‘‘It’s not just a just do it
organisation. You need to
take people on the journey
Lewis is still in an early stage as
it is currently engaging in various
strategies to increase the rigour
and consistency of its practices •
and go ‘oh my god, I don’t
know what to do now.
Balanced approach of high

’ ’
with them. (Senior HR
Professional, JLP)
Importantly, JLP’s leadership

such as online recruitment and process and strong relationships: selection and development
development tools. Most of our organisations practices help to strengthen
combine a relational with a its partnership structure as
• High process but impersonal practice and policy approach. the main building block. For
and non-relational: Based on Some of them such as Unilever example, the whole-person
our empirical material, we have strong relationships built interviewing approach enables
would consider BAE Systems on integrity as part of the them to assess potential leaders
to be a practice- and process- organisation’s legacy. This is also beyond skill and competency.
driven organisation. BAE has a the case for HMRC, where trust By questioning candidates about
range of leader development is about behaving with integrity their lives outside of work, they
and assessment practices in in interaction with others. In make sure that their behaviours
place which underpins their both cases this is paired with and values align with the culture
culture of Total Performance. practices and policies that of the organisation. This in
Generally within BAE there is aim to develop and assess turn enables them to further
a strong focus on numerical trustworthiness in leaders. With develop their own dominant
data. Thus, the characteristics BBC Worldwide moving to a understanding of trustworthiness
of trustworthy behaviour are regional structure, it’s about which emphasises mutual care
mainly assessed as part of the balancing relationship trust with and purpose.
wider performance assessment policies and procedures to keep
practices. For example ability strong governance and move at • Little process and non-relational:
is tested linked to the core speed in the market. In addition, These are what we would call
competencies of leaders while we also see that as external low-trust environments. Here
predictability features strongly stakeholder pressures have got relational trust is low and there
in the need for sustained stronger, for example in the are no or very few practices and
performance, tracked as part case of the financial industry, policies in place. Given our focus
of a leader’s history within the organisations tend to put greater on high-trust organisations,
organisation. However, the emphasis on practices and none of our cases fits in this
organisation is currently trying to process in order to communicate category.

Even though we do not suggest in their leaders. Some seem to in turn may create an environment
that one or the other approach is emphasise ability, while others are of low trust. We presented four
‘better’ as this depends strongly more concerned with integrity. This types of organisations based on
on a variety of situational factors, led us to conduct a more thorough their emphasis on 1) relationships
what we see in our data is analysis into the underlying and 2) practices and policies and
that organisations that take a assumptions that organisations summarised these in a matrix. As
‘relationships first’ approach tended have in mind when thinking about we have shown in our first report,
to have a higher trust environment. trust and trustworthiness. To us, Where has all the trust gone?, trust
Thus, building up and on strong this seems crucial in order to is primarily relational and we believe
relations seems to be important cultivate trustworthy leaders. These that this needs to be recognised by
in order to protect and preserve assumptions are part of what we organisations in order to cultivate
trust consistently over time. In refer to as the ecosystem of trust trustworthy leaders.
many cases, relationships provide which we discussed in the second
the platform and foundational section of this report. We will continue our trust journey
ground for trust and it seems to in a third and final report. In that
us that practices and policies need The ecosystem of trust describes we will move from cultivation and
to reinforce these, rather than how in organisations the meaning the ecosystem of trust to looking
undermine them. of trustworthiness differs based at how trustworthy leaders create
on a variety of contextual factors. trust with their employees and how
Conclusion We distinguished four types of employees experience this.
In this second report on trust we organisation into their dominant
have focused on two main themes: meaning of trust and presented We hope you have found this
(1) the cultivation of trustworthy their strengths and weaknesses. second report thought-provoking
leaders; and (2) the ecosystem of We also presented the range of and interesting. We would like
trust. contextual factors that influence to close by thanking all our
what being a trustworthy leader participating organisations and
In the first section of the report we actually means, such as the industry additional supporters for their time
presented the range of leadership context, external relationship and effort, which enabled us to
selection, development and context and organisational context. delve deeper into the exciting field
assessment practices that our case In addition, we distinguished of trust.
organisations use in the cultivation between trustworthiness as explicitly
of trustworthy leaders. In some stated or implicitly embedded as
of these, trust is explicitly stated. well as seeing trustworthiness as
In others, it seems more implicitly a capability or a behaviour. All
embedded. We have emphasised of this was done to show that
particularly innovative practices, organisations need a more fine-
such as whole-person interviewing grained understanding of what
used by the John Lewis Partnership, a trustworthy leader looks like in
Oxford University Hospital’s piloting order to be able to cultivate them in
of values-based interviewing and an effective way.
interviewing practices that engage
stakeholders, such as the Church In the third section of this report
of England and Oxford University we looked at bringing these
Hospital. two main themes together by
analysing the interplay between
What we see is that explicitly trust and leadership selection and
developing and assessing development policies and practices.
trustworthiness in leaders still takes We showed how practice can
courage, particularly in relation to strengthen trustworthiness of
leaders behaving with integrity and leaders as well as organisations.
benevolence, as trust often plays We also pointed out some of the
an implicit role. We also see that challenges that organisations still
our case study organisations seem face, particularly when there is
to have a certain preference for a perception that there are too
how they define trustworthiness many rules and regulations which

Appendix 1: The case studies
Aberdeenshire Council Trust context For the recruitment of senior leaders

Background The meaning of trust within a robust recruitment system seems
Aberdeenshire is a predominantly Aberdeenshire Council is varied to be in place, comprising executive
rural area in the north-east of and depends on individual search functions, interviews and
Scotland. Traditionally, its economy interpretations. Trust as such is assessment. A final number of
has been largely built on the not explicitly stated in any of the candidates for senior leadership
primary sector, including agriculture, organisation’s documentation but positions are presented to an
fishing and forestry. Over the last all participants communicated its appointment panel. As one of the
40 years, the oil and gas industry importance. Generally, participants final steps in its recruitment, a
has contributed to the area’s rate their organisation as average to social evening event is held with
growth and brought with it a strong high on the various characteristics politicians who are involved in the
population growth. Aberdeenshire of trustworthiness. There are also recruitment decision-making. In
Council employs approximately several examples of when the addition to the formal process,
15,000 people and as such is the organisation was perceived to have candidates are often initially
biggest single employer in the behaved in a trustworthy manner. identified informally through
council area. It is divided into six For example, during a major savings existing networks.
local areas with an annual revenue programme it was important to
budget in 2012–13 totalling £548 treat employees in a benevolent Central to the council’s leadership
million. manner, or with ‘compassion, assessment and development
dignity and respect’. As a public practices is the competency
Aberdeenshire Council comprises sector organisation, not only trust framework, which is applicable
various employee groups, broadly relations between senior managers to service managers and above
structured into Education, Learning and their local staff are important, and which varies based on
and Leisure, Corporate Services, but also the relationships between leadership seniority. There are
Housing and Social Work, and elected members and the officers several overarching competencies,
Infrastructure Services. Each of as well as with the community are including ‘providing direction’,
these is headed by the appropriate seen as crucial. ‘collaborative working’, ‘change
director and led in its entirety management’ and ‘achieving
by the chief executive, Colin Leadership assessment and success’, for which effective
Mackenzie. It is a very diverse development practices behaviours have been identified.
organisation which employs Aberdeenshire Council is currently These competencies are, for
people in varied roles, including undergoing a review of its example, underpinning the leader’s
environmental services, planning, assessment and development job profile and guide the interview
roads and landscapes, teaching, practices. At the heart of it is the process: ‘The job profile will
sports and leisure, customer development of a robust leadership include a competency framework
service, social work and others. pipeline helping to attract, retain which is for Aberdeenshire
As such it offers employment and develop the future leaders Council. That’s got four leadership
opportunities for people from of the organisation, which it has competencies in it and we do
very different backgrounds, skill currently identified as one of its publish that so we ask candidates
sets and motivations. Given its challenges: ‘In some areas yes, in to evidence how they meet those
embeddedness in the national others I don’t think it’s a pipeline, competencies in their supporting
government structure, it does not it’s a trickle, if that makes sense. A statement.’
offer its employees incentive-based pipeline to me implies a constant
pay schemes. This appears to cause flow, but we do struggle in quite Performance is annually assessed as
some challenges, particularly in the a lot of areas.’ This is combined part of the Employee Annual Review
attraction and retention of future with a desire to hire people for (EAR), which at its foundation is the
leaders. potential rather than wanting to see same for all employees. For senior
a ‘finished product’. officers this performance review

is called a Chief Office Appraisal staff to ‘actually do what they say Examples of trustworthy leaders
(or COA) and for teachers the they do when they’re at home Examples of trustworthy leaders
Performance Development Review for the day’. As a result, relational mainly describe leaders who are
Scheme (PDRS). Trustworthiness is trust could be built as well as the honest communicators, even when
implicitly assessed, particularly in trustworthiness of the individual communicating difficult messages,
relation to ability and predictability, in terms of their ability and who act with integrity and who
which are linked through the predictability. In addition, through would put the organisation’s
appraisal of performance continuity. cross-team development workshops, interests before their own: ‘I think
In terms of leadership development, trust relations can be developed by an element of that is they give the
development practices include creating an environment of open impression they put others before
action learning activities, specialist dialogue and respectful sharing. themselves, and the interest of the
workshops and leadership master organisation before the interest
classes. At the same time, there also seems of their service, and create an
to be a need for individuals to trust impression that they want to do
Trustworthiness is implicitly assessed in the various HR practices. For what’s best; and best for their
and developed in these practices. example, in terms of recruitment, organisation but also best with the
Some participants proposed that senior decision-makers have to individual as well, and that’s short,
through development activities, self- be able to trust in the practices to medium and long term.’
awareness and trustworthy relations produce the right outcomes which
could be built: ‘By raising awareness are beneficial to the organisation Not punishing mistakes, being
of the importance of these things and its members. Similarly, HR supportive in allowing one’s
and doing things such as action professionals have to trust others employees to take risks and a good
learning, and things like profiling, involved in the recruitment process understanding of the needs of one’s
people become much more aware to behave in a trustworthy manner followers were also expressed: ‘…
of themselves, how they are with candidates. As such the what we’re trying to teach leaders
perceived and understood and practices provide an important link is they’re not leaders unless they
therefore the importance of trust to in fostering dual-trust relationships. are followers; and those followers
others regarding them.’ However, caution was also require certain things and amongst
expressed as a too strong reliance those things are trust. That word
Impact of policies and practices on practices may replace the trust may encompass so many
on trust need for trust at the level of the things but it is like a reliability in the
Several participants expressed relationship. This is perceived as a way loyalty and belief, those terms
how existing practices create an risk, particularly when practices are will be getting used as well as trust,
environment of trust. For example, introduced in order to counter risk but it’s to help leaders understand
offering employees the possibility aversion. if you’re going to lead you’re to
for homeworking is considered a follow.’
sign of trust, as leaders trust their

Summary of HR practices
Stage of HR HR practices Assessment of trustworthiness

lifecycle
Recruitment • Predominantly external: lack of internal talent • Implicit, through recruiting against
pool competency framework and reputation
• Informal: initial identification of candidates in the network
through existing networks
• Formal: structured process in place (profiling,
interview, assessment centre, meeting councillors
over canapés)
Development • Various practices, including: service training plan, • Implicit, through awareness-building
action learning, leadership master class around trust and competency
framework
Performance • Annual employee performance appraisal (EAR) • Implicit, through assessing ability and
assessment • Chief Officer Appraisal (COA) predictability in performance appraisal
• Professional Development Review Scheme (PDRS)
Reward • No performance-based pay: due to public
context
Overall • Ability • Trustworthiness mainly embedded
emphasis • Predictability in ability and predictability, linked to
• Benevolence and integrity expected but not competency framework
purposely developed or assessed

ABN AMRO ABN AMRO’s leadership practices currently developing ways on how
Background are closely embedded and aligned to improve the assessment of the
ABN AMRO is a Dutch-based and with its strategy. Both seem to values of their leaders. Interestingly,
state-owned bank headquartered evolve in synergy with each other. ABN AMRO also seems to focus
in Amsterdam with a history One element of this strategy is to more on individual self-development
dating back 300 years. Its current ‘become a top-class employer’ and in that employees take responsibility
chairman, Gerrit Zalm, the former leadership development is seen as for their career and professional
Dutch finance minister, was a key element in that. In addition, development. One of these
appointed in 2009 following a our respondents emphasised how practices is a personal e-survey that
combination of acquisitions and the organisation aimed to develop a is specific to the individual where he
break-ups involving the Royal stronger managerial and leadership or she can assess their development
Bank of Scotland, Santander and mindset linking back to its long- needs.
Fortis, which ultimately led to the term strategic goals. This sees
nationalisation of the bank and its leadership as a specialism in itself, Impact of policies and practices on
current organisational structure. focusing on three leadership roles: trust
people leadership, performance Generally all participants seemed
By the end of 2012 ABN AMRO management and personal to agree that trust levels increase
employed just over 23,000 full-time leadership. as a result of leadership policies
employees, following a reduction in and practices. For example, their
the workforce due to restructuring Future leaders are mainly recruited more inclusive approach to leader
efforts. ABN AMRO’s staff service internally in the bank. Having selection by opening up possibilities
retail, private and commercial a robust pipeline and providing to all employees within the firm was
banking customers in the opportunities for growth for perceived to be ‘more transparent
Netherlands as well as worldwide. employees is thus paramount. This and open and accessible for
Its reported operating profit for also becomes evident in the specific everyone’ and hence to create trust.
the year of 2012 was €948 million, development programmes which In addition, the more personalised
showing a strong increase from the are tailored for the various levels approach to leadership development
year before. of managerial seniority. Who will was seen to offer an opportunity
become part of the development for leaders within ABN AMRO to
Trust context programme is decided jointly by the better get to know themselves and
Exceeding customer expectations appropriate line manager and an develop a sense of authenticity.
by ‘retaining their trust’ is central to HR representative in order to ensure This in turn was seen to positively
ABN AMRO’s approach. Regaining that both the human aspect as well influence their trustworthiness with
the trust that may have been lost as the strategy is aligned. Looking others.
in the financial turmoil of the ahead, ABN AMRO is concerned
last years and preserving it as the with developing a more holistic and Currently trustworthiness is only
bank heads towards a promising inclusive approach to leadership partly explicitly assessed, featuring
future are both important parts development which recognises mainly at the recruitment stage.
of its strategy. Trust is also at the and unleashes the talent potential Here, for example, interview
heart of the cultural change that in each and every one of their practices check for the ability of
the organisation is currently going employees rather than focusing on prospective employees. In addition,
through by emphasising moral a selected few. trust features in the employment
behaviours, values and integrity of engagement survey, which is going
all employees across organisational The bank’s greater emphasis on to be more closely linked to the
levels, but specifically of their values and behaviours has led them performance assessment of leaders.
leaders and managers. to introduce a range of practices Our participants generally agreed
such as leadership guidelines and that bringing the assessment of
Leadership assessment and competencies, in order to assess trustworthiness to the forefront
development practices and develop how people ‘perform was important but challenging to
ABN AMRO’s approach to as human beings’. One of these is implement at the same time.
leadership centres around five the Leadership Quality Guideline,
key themes: strategic integration, which is aligned with the strategic Examples of trustworthy leaders
internal development, focus vision of ABN AMRO and provides Examples of trustworthy leaders
on values and behaviours, self- a central guideline for all in the mainly describe someone who is
development and inclusivity. First, organisation. In addition, it is seen as acting like a role model in

terms of integrity and predictability: knows what’s going around. He competence of the leader’. In
‘When the manager doesn’t knows the process and products addition, trustworthy leaders
practice what he’s preaching or and he knows he has to overview were supposed to have a ‘vision’,
she’s preaching I think there’s no his organisation. He knows people be ‘inspiring’, treating others
basis for trust.’ In addition, ability in the organisation or when he’s with ‘respect’ and showing their
was also perceived to be important: a new leader he knows people ‘vulnerable side’.
‘He’s capable of doing his job. He outside his organisation. So the

lifecycle
Recruitment • Mostly internal, some external • Explicit assessment of ability
• Competency-focused interviewing • Implicit assessment of other
characteristics
Development • Developmental 360 • Implicit
• E-survey: Self-guided needs assessment
• Alignment with strategic needs
• Succession development
• Development propositions for all staff
Performance • Annual talent review • Mainly implicit
assessment • Twice-yearly performance review • Some explicit assessment in
• 9-box grid engagement survey
• Engagement survey
• KPIs
• Performance management system: 60% output,
40% development/behaviour
Reward • Fixed bonus system
Overall • Generally greater engagement with meaning of • Mainly implicit but increasingly explicit
emphasis trustworthiness in leaders

BAE Systems Trust context Generally within BAE there is a
Background Trust is explicitly stated as one of strong focus on numerical data.
BAE Systems is a global defence, BAE’s core values: ‘Trusted – We This underpins the identification
security and aerospace company, deliver on our commitments.’ While of talent within the organisation,
headquartered in London, with it seems as if this mainly emphasises making it strongly measurement-
home markets in the UK, US, the importance of ability, other focused. Achieving high
Australia, India and Saudi Arabia. characteristics of organisational performance is emphasised at an
The organisation was formed trustworthiness are addressed in the individual level as well as team
in 1999, resulting from a multi- organisation’s values as well: ‘We level: ‘Senior leaders have the
billion-pound merger of Marconi are honest and take responsibility’ responsibility of building winning
Electronic Systems and British (integrity), ‘We can be relied upon’ teams, high-performing teams.
Aerospace. BAE Systems is listed (predictability) and ‘Everyone So the perform bit is objective-
on the London Stock Exchange and matters’ (benevolence). Linking setting. … being able to articulate
forms part of the FTSE 100. The back to these values, trust and how we go about differentiation
organisation had annual revenues particularly the capability of building of performance, how we classify
of nearly £18 billion in 2012. In trust is also embedded within BAE’s performance ratings themselves,
the UK, BAE is one of the leading leadership competencies. These so we understand what good
suppliers to the Ministry of Defence competencies are underpinning looks like. We understand what
(MoD). In the US, its subsidiary BAE leadership development, exceptional looks like. You have
Systems Inc. is one of the six largest performance measurement as well to hit everything and exceed
suppliers to the US Department of as selection. As a result, behaving in everything to become exceptional.’
Defense. Some of its major projects a trustworthy manner is central for
include the Eurofighter Typhoon, current and future leaders of BAE. Importantly, our participants
the Astute Class submarines and particularly emphasised the
the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft Leadership assessment and development of the future
carriers. It is also the UK’s largest development practices generation of BAE’s leaders, which is
manufacturing employer and BAE puts strong emphasis on the aligned with environmental changes
employer of engineers and as such development and assessment of as well as its long-term strategy:
contributes £3.3 billion to the UK’s leadership behaviours. To support ‘Where we are getting to with that
GDP. Globally, BAE Systems employs decision-making in these areas, it is around defining what the critical
around 85,000 employees, 35,000 makes use of various practices. This capabilities are, so in our resource
of which are based in the UK. includes a 360-degree performance review process that we have, each
assessment, yearly performance of the businesses produces a sort of
The organisation itself is structured reviews based on a set of defined an insight summary which is saying
hierarchically, relying extensively competencies which are contained here is my strategy and here are
on established processes and in the Total Performance Leadership the people implications of that.’ At
procedures, and operates in a Framework, and, mainly for the same time, there is a concern to
highly regulated environment. This leader selection, psychological further promote those behaviours
impacts on its global talent pool of profiling and interviews. The Total which enable the organisation to
around 7,000 leaders, particularly in Performance Leadership Framework maintain its strong core values.
relation to talent mobility. Recently, is BAE’s central unifying framework Creating the balance between the
the environment in which BAE that is underpinning their culture two is one of the challenges that
Systems operates has become more of Total Performance. As such it BAE has identified for the present
competitive, customer-focused and clarifies the behavioural standards and future.
volatile, requiring more dynamism that the organisation expects of
and flexibility of the organisation. its leaders, building on four key The characteristics of trustworthy
As a result, BAE has started to elements: perform, assess, develop behaviour are mainly assessed
introduce a culture shift away and reward. In addition, each leader implicitly during performance
from being heavily process- and has a personalised development assessment. For example, ability
task-focused, in which the human plan which identifies and guides is tested, linked to the core
resource function takes a central their development needs. This is competencies of leaders, while
role. aligned with the core competencies predictability features strongly in the
that are required of leaders as well need for sustained performance,
as the strategies of the various tracked as part of a leader’s history
departments and BAE as a whole. within the organisation.

Impact of policies and practices on ongoing concerns of BAE’s HR integrity, evident in low levels of
trust professionals, with the aim of, in self-interest, and the importance
Our participants emphasised the long term, creating a high- of putting the requirements of the
the importance of introducing trust environment which enables organisation first in order to be
more trust into the organisation’s a ‘lightness of processual touch’, seen as trustworthy: ‘Trust should
leadership selection and assessment. where consistency and dynamism be around that belief that another
They approached this endeavour work in harmony: ‘It’s trying to individual or an organisation will
in two ways. On the one hand, find that balance between letting do and say – say something and
in order to increase transparency go in a culture which actually likes then follow through and do it but
and hence trust, a set of objective controls. And we’re engineers so will do it in a way that is – what’s
selection practices was introduced. tell me what to do, all that sort of the word I’m looking for? It’s kind
This is important to address the thing. But not letting go too much, of got that integrity.’ At the same
perceived lack of predictability as not letting go completely because I time, taking care of others and
well as clarity. At the same time, think to just take everything away, treating them fairly is perceived to
there is a desire to further foster actually people will just look and go be important, as even though BAE
high-trust relationships by reducing “oh my god, I don’t know what to can be seen as a highly structured
the dependency on numerical do now”.’ and processual organisation, it is
controls, shifting from mandating built on strong relationships and
requirements to empowering line Examples of trustworthy leaders personal interaction: ‘This is a very
managers to take ownership for Many of the leadership behaviours consensual organisation. It is deeply
processes. Striking the balance described as exemplary refer to the based on relationships.’
between the two is one of the need for predictability, clarity and

lifecycle
Recruitment • Combination of internal and external • Implicit: job specifications
Development • Individual development plan • Implicit: development of behaviours
• Developmental assessment centres congruent with leadership
• Four-quadrant model of development competencies
• Leading for total performance: leadership
intervention in order to introduce meaning of
leading change, clarity and purpose
Performance • Total Performance Leadership Framework: central • Implicit: through performance
assessment integrative framework built around perform, assessment, particularly relating to
assess, develop and reward ability and predictability
• Performance benchmarking: competitor
comparison
Reward • Performance-based bonus • Implicit: through rewarding ability and
• Long-term incentives predictability
Overall • Ability • Mainly assessed through numerical
emphasis • Predictability data
• Integrity
• Benevolence

BBC Worldwide has highlighted the importance in a trustworthy fashion most
Background of trusting relationships between often means showing integrity
BBC Worldwide is the the regions’ offices and corporate and ability. Benevolence is almost
commercially focused and wholly London centre and the need for perceived as something so central
owned subsidiary of the British leaders to make decisions for the to the organisation that it does
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). wider good of the organisation. not have to be assessed. There is a
As such it works to support the fine balance between focusing too
public service mission of the BBC Leadership assessment and much on predictability and running
while maximising its financial gain development practices the risk of stifling innovation
in a way that is consistent with There are various leadership and personal development, as a
the BBC’s values. BBC Worldwide assessment and development senior manager in BBC Worldwide
is a global organisation with seven practices in place. Developing talent suggests: ‘…that’s almost seen as
geographical markets grouped into from within through programmes a negative that people can’t be
four regions: UK, North America, such as Inspire and Atlas seems to spontaneous. They can’t innovate.’
Australia and New Zealand and be a priority for the organisation.
global markets including Asia, As a result, it invests considerably Generally, BBC Worldwide seems
Latin America, Western Europe in its high-potentials. In order to to adopt a combination approach
and Central and Eastern Europe. fill strategic positions that cannot of explicit and implicit assessment
Providing high-quality BBC content be filled with internal candidates, a techniques of its current and future
to audiences across the globe is combination of external specialised leaders. Given the organisation’s
at the heart of its operations. The recruitment agencies and existing emphasis on culture, the ability to
organisation’s financial performance networks are often made use of. demonstrate behaviours that are
has seen growth, with its annual congruent with its cultural values
sales rising to £1,116 million in the As a result of the structural is central to leadership. These
year of 2012–13. During 2012 BBC changes, BBC Worldwide has also are initially assessed during the
Worldwide reorganised its business introduced global policies and interview stage and continue to
from a geographic to regional procedures in order to govern and play an important role in daily social
focus. In October 2012 Tim Davie align its international operations interactions and work relationships.
was announced as the new chief and to create a global leadership In addition, they become more
executive and he took up the post core. The HR function has taken a explicit in job descriptions and
in April 2013. central role in this: ‘I think that my annual performance reviews. The
aim and intention or one of the organisation has also set up a live
Trust context things that I want to provide value 360-degree feedback environment,
Trust is the ‘foundation of the BBC’, in is ensuring that in introducing where candidates for the Inspire
where it is stated as one of its global programmes that they are programme receive on-the-spot
values. As part of the BBC, trust in not UK globally applicable but feedback from seven to eight
BBC Worldwide itself also resides in that they are genuinely global and people consisting of peers, people
the values that are underpinning its are effective and reflective as that they report to or who report to
culture as well as the longstanding international piece.’ them. The purpose here is also to
personal relationships of employees. promote openness and honesty in
Generally, organisational Some of these practices include, the feedback process.
trustworthiness is rated highly, for example, a recently developed
particularly in terms of integrity global competency framework and Impact of policies and practices on
towards its members and external scoring grid which assess values and trust
stakeholders. From this perspective, those leadership behaviours when The strong emphasis on social
trust is at the core of the BBC: ‘[The recruiting. A greater focus on global relationships means that there
BBC] is a highly trusted brand and operations also requires leaders who is some concern around the
maintaining that is really important. have the skills to balance national introduction of formal policies and
We would never do anything that and international needs and work procedures. As a result, several
would intentionally harm [the with a global mindset. The ‘ability interviewees emphasised that
reputation of the brands].’ to be trustworthy’ is seen as central processes have to work alongside
to working in this new structural the company culture, helping to
As a result of the restructuring and environment as it enables leaders to strengthen it, rather than replacing
the shift in focus from divisional be adaptable and make decisions it. This is achieved by, for example,
to global lines of business, this quickly on a global scale. Behaving focusing on the outcome of the

process rather than the different addition, by carefully managing the beat you up over it, I just need to
formal elements underlying it appraisal and performance review know what’s happening.” So I think
as well as by communicating its process, an environment is created that’s one example.’
advantages. where feedback is more openly
and honestly shared by managers In addition, examples of
Many perceive the benefit of a more and their reports. This helps to deal trustworthy leadership include
formal approach in introducing a with what was described as some good communication, sharing of
sense of trust into the company. anxieties around the giving and information, being honest and
For example, while previously the receiving of particularly negative transparent, making time for people
internal selection process had at performance feedback. while ‘making them feel special’
times lacked in transparency and as well as putting the good of the
clarity, by introducing standardised Examples of trustworthy leaders organisation before one’s own
performance practices, the Interviewees most often referred agenda. At a global level, being a
organisation’s integrity and hence its to their CEO, Tim Davie, when trustworthy leader means upholding
trustworthiness could be increased: describing examples of trustworthy the values of the organisation in a
‘It’s integrity to the process, both for leadership. Frequently it was Tim’s context where these at times may
the person that’s selected but also openness that was emphasised: be challenged in emerging markets
the people that aren’t and it’s about ‘“Hey guys, this is how I want it to with cultural differences.
being as objective as possible.’ In be, nothing to hide, not going to


lifecycle
Recruitment • Combination of internal and external • Explicit in role specifications
–– Head-hunters and relational networks • Implied by referring to values
–– Greater focus on internal talent pipeline going and importance of interpersonal
ahead relationships, empowerment and
• Collaborative approach to role profiling: involving communication in interviewing process
senior managers and HR
• Global role framework: consistent job description
format
Development • Corporate leadership programme built around • Implicit through developing leadership
multiple tiers and assessment stages behaviours that align with the
• BBC Worldwide Executive Committee (WEx): organisation’s strategy and culture
leadership group
• WEx plus: talent to join the WEx group
• Atlas and Inspire: emerging leaders programmes
• Leadership coaching: skill- and behaviour-focused
Performance • Annual talent review: employee driven, based • Explicit testing through performance
assessment on nine-box grid around company values, core vis-à-vis values and role specifications
competencies of role and organisational strategy • Implicit through proven track record
• Leadership assessment programme involving live within organisation
360-degree feedback and psychometrics
Reward • Bonus plan: 75% company objectives, 25% • Explicit linked to achievement of
individual objectives, no long-term incentive plan personal objectives
• Compensation beyond pay: development
opportunities as reward
Overall • Global integration and consistency • Trustworthiness as leadership behaviour
emphasis

Church of England importance historically. Many of evident in the importance placed
Background our participants also rated their on the consultation process. This
The Church of England (CofE) is the organisation highly on these two practice of information-gathering
officially established Christian church characteristics. Importantly, in terms helps to establish the fit of the
in England. It is organised into two of the characteristics of trustworthy proposed candidate and may
provinces, each led by an archbishop. leaders, ability seemed to also involve specific representatives of
These are the Archbishop of favour highly with our respondents. the CofE such as the bishops as
Canterbury for the Southern well as, quite uniquely, the larger
province and the Archbishop of York Trust exists most strongly at the congregation, who may become
for the Northern province. Each relationship level in the CofE. This aware of the procedures involved
province is divided into dioceses includes the relationship with God, through the Church newspaper:
which are structured into boards which is strongly trust-based, as ‘Certainly in the Church press
and councils responsible for various well as the interactions with the – so anyone who would regard
aspects of the Church’s work. There congregation and other clergy. themselves as a Church member
are 41 in total in England as well as The evidence provided by clergy would know that they can write
clergy and congregations in other for promotional candidates for in, but in theory anybody can. And
parts of Europe, Morocco and Asian example is highly trusted and hence people do.’
parts of the former Soviet Union. an important promotional decision-
This research focuses on one of making tool. In addition, based on In addition, leadership selection
these dioceses. religious principles trust is seen as depends on the level at which the
the starting point, something that leader is recruited. Generally the
Each diocese in turn is built from is fundamentally given rather than CofE follows a flat structure. For
benefices, which are overseen by a something that needs to be built. example when recruiting people
priest. The parish is ‘the heart of the The definition of trust as accepting for ministry, that is, when decisions
Church of England’, emphasising vulnerability resonated with several are made on who to ordain, there
the importance of the local of our participants. Accepting are nine specific criteria, including
community and high involvement vulnerability and actively sharing personality and character, against
of the parish priest. Her Majesty the one’s vulnerabilities of one’s ‘private which recruitment takes place.
Queen is the Supreme Governor life’ with the members of one’s In addition, for the appointment
of the CofE and as such has a congregation was perceived to be of archdeacons and deans, open
formal role in the appointment of central in building trustworthiness. advertisement takes place. However,
senior leaders within the church. this is not the case for the level of
The senior leadership team in the Leadership assessment and the bishop, where positions are not
organisation generally involves development practices openly advertised. Central to the
bishops, deans of cathedrals and Leadership selection is formalised process is what is referred to as the
archdeacons, or in this case the in terms of the procedural steps ‘preferment list’, which is a national
diocesan secretary who is the lay that are involved in selecting artefact, containing a list of names
chief executive, as well as the future leaders. This includes, of potential leadership candidates,
director of training. Currently, depending on the level of seniority, which functions similarly to a talent
there are 108 bishops who engage, initial conversations, specific pool. In addition, candidates may
together with others, in the job descriptions and application also come from outside this pool.
synodical government of the CofE. documents, the gathering of Candidates will have been added to
references, job interviewing and the list by the Diocesan Bishop who
Trust context national selection conferences. centralises the decision-making in
Trust is central to the Church of Particular focus is put on the this context. In addition, depending
England, most evident in their personal and written references on the seniority of the leader to be
culture of compassion. This relates that are received about a candidate chosen, the selection process may
most strongly to the concept of by other clergy. However, selection involve the highest representatives
benevolence in the definition of practices in themselves are often of the country such as Her Majesty
trust. At the same time there is lacking in formality and are highly the Queen and the Prime Minister.
strong emphasis on integrity, most relationship driven. This also
often linked to morality. Both includes the relationship with God Leadership assessment in the CofE
benevolence and integrity seem and the notion that God is ‘calling’ differs compared with the corporate
to be strongly embedded in the candidates to a particular role. The world. Some consistency is
legacy of the CofE and its role and emphasis on relationships becomes encouraged through the ministerial

review scheme, which could be This includes for example work- At the same time, participants
described as a soft 360 assessment based learning groups, coaching suggested that practices such as
and which is conducted every and mentoring and training the review scheme help to build
18 months alternating between programmes run together with individual trustworthiness and one’s
peer review and senior leader other organisations. Overall, well- personal trust story. However, a
review. This is mainly led by the being and the development of sense of caution was expressed
reviewee and the reviewer takes relational skills, conflict management as well in that an increase in
predominantly a developmental and networking within and beyond processes and procedures may lead
role: ‘I think the whole ethos of the the CofE are emphasised during to diminished levels of trust as they
scheme is one of trust because it these development programmes, overemphasise rationality.
is strongly led by the person being again underpinning the importance
reviewed because our starting point of personal relationships. However, Examples of trustworthy leaders
if you like is, we trust you to want leadership development is not Examples of trustworthy leaders
to do your job to the best of your only facilitated through training often referenced the importance
ability and develop yourself. So our programmes and the like, but also of honesty, loyalty and integrity,
starting position is, we trust you to happens through what may be the need to be good at conflict
engage with that, and we’re here described as ‘development through management and building
to help you do that, not, we don’t pilgrimage’. This practice describes relationships as well as exhibiting an
trust you to do that so we’re here how senior leaders of the CofE tell aura of humility, living sacrificially
to make sure you do whether you stories in their local parishes as well and being a serving leader.
want to or not, so the scheme itself as to the wider clergy about very Characteristics such as setting a
is set up in quite a soft way.’ This is positive initiatives and exemplary vision or what was referred to as
specific to the diocese in our study leadership behaviours, which ‘making the weather’ were seen
though and may vary across others. encourages others to exhibit similar as important at a very senior level
behaviours. such as archbishop. For lower levels
Trustworthiness is mainly assessed in the hierarchy, being seen as able
implicitly in these practices. The Impact of policies and practices on in performing the role one was
Bible in itself gives guidance on the trust ‘called to’ perform, was deemed as
meaning of trustworthy behaviour. There seems to be some essential for a trustworthy leader.
Establishing one’s personality and ambivalence around how the
character in congruence with recently introduced selection, Several of our participants also
the propositions of the Bible development and assessment agreed that being, first of all,
is perceived as important. As practices and processes have aware and secondly, transparent
such, leaders need to be seen as impacted on trust among the in terms of one’s own limitations
being authentic in following and members of the diocese and the was important. Thus being seen
living by the holy writings. Most organisation. On the one hand, as authentic and open about the
importantly, given the significance for example, the development ‘feet of clay’ seemed to be required
of relationships and consultation, programme around well-being in order to be perceived as a
assessment takes place at a level suggests that the Church cares trustworthy leader: ‘That’s easy,
where untrustworthy behaviour may about its members and provides and I think this might be helpful
be collectively reprimanded and the evidence of this benevolence in the in as much as I’d say there are
story that people tell about each form of financial investment. As people who I knew had feet of clay
other becomes a powerful informal such organisational trustworthiness and were quite transparent about
assessment tool. The Church is may have increased: ‘I think why it. The clergy that I admired as a
special in this way as it has its own well-being is important to trust young priest who were of heroic
unique disciplinary structure with is because it’s the sign that we proportions to me were the people
many checks and balances. mean it, when we say we care who were – they were honest
about people and we want them about who they were. You could
Similarly, leader development is to flourish and we feel responsible see where the holes were but they
individually driven and the CofE for that at some level. That’s the added up as people because they
provides a range of development tangible sign if you like. The fact weren’t pretending.’
opportunities that members can that we’re putting money into it
sign up for as part of the continuing and person power, it’s a visible sign,
Ministerial Development Programme. the evidence if you like that when
we say we care, we actually do.’


lifecycle
Recruitment • Internal recruitment: Leadership level • Implicit through establishing fit with
• Formally structured process: Job advertisement, religious values
Application document, Interviewing, Preferment
list, National Selection conferences
• Relationship driven: Referencing, conversations
• Variability in practices: Depending on level
Development • Ministerial Development Programme: Self-driven • Implicit through relationship-building
emphasising relation skills and well-being and learning about exemplary leader
• Development through pilgrimage: Storytelling as behaviours
means of development
Performance • Ministerial review scheme: Self-driving, soft 360 • Implicit through personal stories
assessment assessment conducted
• No formal performance guidelines: Collective
sanctioning and individual voice
Reward • Lack of financial incentives: Incongruent with
Christian values
Overall • Benevolence • Emphasis on benevolence linked to
emphasis • Integrity compassion and integrity linked to
• Ability morality
• Predictability

Day Lewis dedication. Day Lewis has created improvements. While previously
Background an excellent culture of mutual there was a tendency to recruit
Day Lewis is the UK’s and Europe’s support and respect supported by friends, family and known
largest independently owned effective initiatives such as CSR, fun people (this applied specifically
pharmacy chain. The company days, the annual staff conference, to branches), the business is now
was founded in 1975 by Kirit Patel and monthly Friday lunch involving developing an online recruitment
when he acquired two pharmacies support office and warehouse staff tool and only a small defined
in Southborough. By 1986, he had – all reinforce the family ethos.’ group of managers in the business
added 30 more pharmacies with actually recruit. The process
a team of people, many of whom Leadership assessment and has become more rigorous and
are still part of the business today. development practices competency-based interviewing
Over the last 30 years the company Not that much recruitment and is very much in evidence. The
has grown into a group with more selection activity takes place at business realised that, with the
than 200 pharmacies across the senior levels in the organisation exception of pharmacists and
country and a central distribution because there is a culture of loyalty certain specific support office
network. The group of pharmacies and long service. However, for the roles, attitude and cultural fit is
has annual sales in excess of £180 selection and assessment that does more important than experience
million and employs more than take place, the organisation uses and qualifications. Restricting the
1,700 people. In 2005, its founder a recently developed competency number of managers who can take
was awarded an MBE for services to matrix, monthly meetings with their recruitment decisions has led to a
pharmacy. The firm remains family- managers, the annual performance higher level of consistency.
owned, run by the first and second review process, 360-degree
generation of the Patel family. feedback, staff survey feedback The organisation has also in the
in their area of the business and last year set up a Next Generation
Trust context in some cases feedback from the Board, at senior management level,
Trust is not explicitly talked about at founder of the organisation. to develop practical experience
Day Lewis; but it is ‘subliminal and and understanding of running the
part of the psyche’. Interviewees Day Lewis has also recently put company and what the founders
very much feel that because in place a new regional support expect of the board. Interviewees
Day Lewis is a family business its structure, recruiting or promoting talked about the current board
culture ‘has to be one of trust and internally four regional managers being a clever and deliberate mix of
respect’. All interviewees spoke as well as 12 regional support family members and senior people
of the high levels of trust in Day managers. This is part of a with external expertise brought in
Lewis overall and the high levels of ‘devolution to the field’ strategy. The to complement the current expertise
trust in leaders: ‘trust in Day Lewis competency matrix for these roles and allow family members to focus
is off the scale’; ‘here you can be focuses much more on behaviours on their strengths.
your “absolute best” self’; ‘trust is and values than skills. The roles
the umbrella above management were advertised both internally An online learning academy has
and leaders – it is special.’ They and externally and candidates took also created a culture that genuinely
consistently score the organisation a psychometric online test and a values learning and the exchange
highly on the organisational competency-based interview. As the of knowledge and information to
trustworthiness measure but are focus was on values and behaviours, drive individual and organisational
not complacent about success and successful candidates underwent performance.
capability. All interviewees agree intensive skills training and
about the high level of support development on a monthly basis Impact of policies and practices on
and concern shown to Day Lewis in their first year. Trust is implicit trust
employees. to the competency matrix – ‘we Day Lewis has recently won a gold
don’t talk about trust explicitly but medal with Investors in People and
The recent Investors in People (IiP) it supports most of what we do.’ the report finds the organisation
report, which encompasses the Instead interviewees said they talk to be ‘one of the only examples
views of over 100 staff, further about ‘honesty and integrity with of an organisation that as it grows
highlights the strong trust culture: discipline, loyalty and family values’. larger, the values grow stronger’.
‘There is a high level of trust, care Interviewees put this down to
and respect for employees, which is The approach to recruitment and the recruitment, assessment and
paid back in the form of loyalty and selection has undergone huge development systems working in

practice – ‘recruiting on values and and is down to a more inclusive in’; ‘knowing when to inform and
attitudes and teaching on skills’. management style being adopted.’ when to consult’; ‘bringing people
People are described as truly ‘living together, talking to people and
the values’ and that ‘it is evident by Some are concerned that the finding out what they think’.
the way people behave, how the culture of extremely high trust
organisation is’. levels also means that they run
the risk of low accountability
When thinking about the from certain individuals. But steps
characteristics of trustworthy leaders around performance management
identified by Mayer et al (1995), are currently being put in place
interviewees felt their leaders to address such issues as well as
would probably score highest aligning processes with strategy and
on benevolence and integrity, getting the balance right between
while ability and competence are empowerment and consistency.
being constantly developed and In fact, a new department has
they are certainly not complacent recently been set up to focus on
around how good they are and aligning processes with strategy.
their success. Some felt that an This will help to increase people’s
even greater focus on 360-degree ownership of tasks. But there is a
feedback would be helpful in strong awareness to strengthen
further developing leaders’ processes in the right way, which is
awareness of self and others. beneficial to all parties and does not
take away people’s freedom to act,
Part of the organisation’s business nor does it stifle innovation: ‘This
growth strategy is through mergers should provide them with better
and acquisitions and in these feedback about how their tasks
circumstances an ability to be are being performed and create a
seen as trustworthy and believed better alignment to the core values
is crucial. Interviewees expressed of the business which should in turn
their understanding of this and the increase trust.’
importance of letting people know
as much as possible what is going Examples of trustworthy leaders
on: ‘This can be a very stressful time Interviewees shared several
for people. You have to be honest. examples of trustworthy leaders in
If it is bad news, tell them – explain Day Lewis. Many referred to the
why – consultation is on the table.’ consistently trustworthy behaviour
of the CEO, Kirit Patel: ‘Kirit is the
Interviewees talked about an company – trust him and trust Day
emphasis on inclusive leadership, Lewis.’ Others talked about Tim
with clear and consistent Rendell’s ability to ‘engender an
communication, which is also environment of trust’ and develop
highlighted in the IiP report: ‘You his team, bringing together support
have successfully endeavoured to office workers and field-based staff
ensure genuine staff engagement as one team.
and an open culture, where asking
questions is welcome, people are According to our interviewees,
quite clear of what is expected of the things that make
them, including the behaviours. trustworthy leaders stand out
They also frequently commented are: ‘communicating clearly and
on the considerably improved honestly’; ‘having an interest in
flow of information, which makes individual people’; ‘surrounding
them feel trusted and empowered. themselves with people who
This in turn motivates your people complement their skills’; ‘acts,
to perform even better. … This speaks, behaves and thinks
aspect has improved considerably consistently with what they believe


lifecycle
Recruitment • Selection for senior positions via a psychometric • The new competency model focuses
online test and recently developed competency more on behaviours and values
matrix. than skills tapping into a candidate’s
trustworthiness
Development • A Next Generation Board at senior management • Implicit
level to develop practical experience and
understanding of running the company and
what the founders expect of the board.
An online learning academy has also been
developed.
Performance • Assessed through monthly meetings with • An explicit focus on behaviours and
assessment managers, 360-degree feedback, the annual values
performance review process and in some cases
feedback from the founder of the organisation.
Overall • Benevolence
emphasis • Integrity

GKN index’. Here questions are asked team of 100, but when you’re
Background about ‘trust in your leader’ and also talking about the culture of the
GKN is a long established global about ‘trust in leadership’ and this organisation, those 600 or so
engineering group, operating four reveals some interesting anomalies. go right the way through to the
divisions, GKN Driveline, GKN The question: ‘I’m able to talk leaders of the sites. Now that’s
Powder Metallurgy, GKN Aerospace in confidence to my boss about we’re we’ve got the majority of
and GKN Land Systems. Currently matters that are important to me’ our people.’
there are approximately 48,000 normally scores highly, in the top
employees, operating out of around three. However, ‘there is a high level The recruitment process for this
150 manufacturing locations in over of trust between employees and cadre of leaders (particularly those
30 countries around the world. The leadership’ scores in the bottom at the senior end of this group)
group faced a serious decline in three. includes an assessment element,
sales in 2008 and 2009, but since focusing on personality aspects to
then sales have been growing each The HR director of one of the really understand how the person
year in all four divisions. divisions (Driveline) also reflects on will ‘fit’ into the GKN culture. The
the paradox that they traditionally group HR director explained that
Trust context score low on trust in senior/group probably three out of four hires at
A lot of importance is given to trust leadership and very high on trust in this level are internal promotions:
within GKN, with a lot of named local leadership. ‘In the past we’ve ‘we’ve always got a bias to the
individual leaders being mentioned as not been as good as we should internal person because we know
exemplars of trustworthy leadership. have been in communicating… them, warts and all, and we know
Interviewees also talked positively people feel very comfortable and how they behave and their fit with
about the fact that trust was identify very positively with local us’.
particularly high when the difficult leadership. But leadership at group
redundancy situation took place level has tended to be a little bit For the external hires, potential
some four to five years ago. They remote (with the exception of the candidates tend to meet a number
believed this was due to the huge recession in 2008/09 when the of GKN people as part of the
effort the leadership team made to leaders went out of their way to be recruitment process, again to try to
communicate to the employees and better at communicating).’ get a good view from all parties of
to keep them in the loop as to what what the ‘fit’ is.
was going on during this difficult Leadership assessment and
economic time. This meant that development practices In terms of development
‘predictability’ at this time was very GKN have various levels of practices, every leader has a
high. People were being told when leadership. There is an executive development plan, which focuses
decisions were being made and were team of just under 100 leaders on the leadership and behavioural
being consulted. (out of the total workforce of circa rather than technical areas for
48,000), and then a further group development. The completion of a
While a lot of emphasis continues of circa 560 further managers development plan is a requirement
to be placed on trust now there who have responsibility for a of everyone’s personal objectives
seems to have emerged somewhat business or a location, and it is which form part of the overall
of a mismatch between trust in the the development and assessment performance management system
individual line manager and trust in practices relating to these two that GKN has in place. GKN also
the organisation/senior leadership, groups that the interviews focused have in place a competency model
with trust in the individual line on primarily. against which leaders’ performance
manager being much stronger. is measured. This has four separate
The group HR director suggested One interviewee made the quadrants to it covering experience,
‘we’re struggling to crack what interesting distinction in terms of capabilities, personal attributes and
drives trust. We have conversations these two leadership groups’ levels knowledge. This forms the basis of
about it all the time, but it doesn’t of influence, ‘I think it depends the performance and development
(explicitly) drive any of our policies’. on whether you’re talking about conversation and off the back of
influence on the culture of the this the development plan will be
A place where trust is explicitly organisation or influence on some established.
addressed is in the GKN of the business decisions. The
engagement survey and the more influence on business decisions This process is applied consistently
regular monthly ‘positive climate will be through the executive for all leaders whatever role

they’re in and wherever focus on behaviours rather on the And another perceived inconsistency
they’re geographically located. ‘what’. that one of the interviewees
Development programmes are also flagged that could explain lower
designed and rolled out to different Policy and practice gaps and the trust levels in the leadership was to
levels of leaders on the back of the impact of these on trust do with flexible working. ‘Flexible
competency model. GKN has a financially driven culture. working patterns were introduced
This was seen as positive by the (as a means of saving jobs) during
One interviewee reflected ‘I think interviewees, for example, it meant the downturn. However, now the
the organisation has to value that the leaders ‘have an edge’. economy has recovered, this option
trustworthiness for it to flourish… However, at times it can lead to is no longer available, which people
you’re sort of getting into the tensions between policies and don’t understand.’
nature versus nurture debate. In practice.
GKN, our development programmes A final example of potential
seek to make those that are already The director of talent management perceived gaps between policies
good at this (trustworthiness) better, and development reflected, ‘We and practice builds on the issue
but also seeks to give the kind get a lot of feedback from the of difficult conversations and its
of toolkit in terms of behaviours, assessment interviews (which focus potential negative impact on trust.
values etc to those coming through, on behavioural aspects) where the As one interviewee explained,
to say this is how you need to delegates say, “we get this. We ‘People don’t want to have difficult
behave to be successful’. get the behaviours we need to conversations. If you asked everyone
demonstrate. When are you going to distribute pay and then asked
While it was recognised that the to tell the ones at the top”… Our them to modify this distribution
performance management system delegates on all programmes feel as they need to then have a
in place in GKN is good, with the they want to behave in a certain conversation with people (to confirm
vast majority of people receiving way but their leader doesn’t let where they’ve been ranked) it will
performance reviews, a couple them.’… ‘How much of that be completely different – because
of the interviewees reflected that is truth and how much is an they struggle to have the difficult
in GKN people tend to shy away excuse I’m not sure. I would say conversations…This impacts the
from having difficult conversations. it’s probably somewhere in the trust element because people don’t
The group HR director expressed middle.’ witness the population being dealt
how the people at GKN are ‘quite with in a fair and equitable way.’
nice and one of the things we’re Another interviewee reflected that
trying to get better at is giving ‘The top drives the behaviours Examples of trustworthy leaders
feedback and receiving feedback, and the top are solely focused on There were lots of individual leaders
particularly having difficult financials and delivery.’ who were called out as an example
conversations’. of ‘a great leader’.
A possible explanation for the
With regard to the processes and low trust scores in leadership Some of these were people we’ve
decisions around reward, there highlighted in the first section is interviewed as part of the strand 2
are now processes and policies in because of inconsistent behaviours interviews (and others were those
place which can’t be bypassed, demonstrated by the senior leaders who had been suggested as part of
and so which determine levels of in minor but nonetheless visible a wider shortlist of possible strand 2
pay and bonus and are rolled out actions they are seen to take, for interviewees.) Fidel Ortego who runs
annually on a worldwide basis. example parking in the visitor car the Mexico business was mentioned
And specifically with regards to park (despite being given feedback), by a couple of the interviewees:
the pay and bonus of the top 600 high levels of corporate entertaining. ‘the Mexico business – it’s just fun
or so employees, this is based on to be around. You can feel it. It’s all
a combination of financial and Another low employee engagement about the people and the leadership
strategic measures. This is the first score highlighted in the first section there’. When questioned whether
year that the strategic measures concerns the question ‘I have career it was Fidel himself, the response
(which lend themselves less to opportunities’. Again a possible was that it was the leadership team
being measured objectively) have explanation given for this was due there, not just Fidel.
been introduced and it was quite to many positions being filled by
a step for the business to take. internal succession planning and The group HR director reflected
However these do not explicitly not being advertised. on Fidel too: ‘what Fidel does

is very visible. He ties his future these individuals would probably that he also acted as a buffer or
to the same future as the always act in this way but because ‘shield’. He’d let the good messages
organisation, so his success is part GKN values and recognises those filter through to his team but would
of the organisation’s success. He behaviours they can thrive. shelter them from bad messages
takes great pride in the position (and in particular the tone of bad
of the organisation in terms of Another individual who was messages).
the community and works hard mentioned as ‘a great leader’
with the community to make was a site manager in Kansas. An And one further example was
GKN a valued and contributing example given of his behaviour of ‘a great leader’ in Brazil.
neighbour to the society.’ We was how he created unity within Comments included ‘they’ve got
discussed whether these examples his management team at different a fabulous leader… he won’t take
of good leaders were as a result levels, by taking part in the same any nonsense but he’s also very
of the assessment processes. development programme as his amenable… there’s flexibility there,
One inteviewee reflected that managers. Yet, an observation was technical excellence but fair’.

lifecycle
Recruitment • Predominantly internal: approximately 3 out of 4 • Implicit, through getting a good view
hires at a senior level are internal from all parties of where the ’fit’ is
• For external hires the process involves meeting a
number of GKN people
Development • Various practices, including development plan, • Implicit, providing a toolkit in terms of
assessment against competency plan and behaviours, values and so on needed
development programmes off the back of these to be successful
Performance • Annual worldwide performance review to • Implicit
assessment determine pay and bonus levels
Reward • With regards to the pay and bonus of the top • Implicit with the strategic measures not
600 leaders this is based on a combination of explicitly focusing on behaviours but
financial and strategic measures rather on the ’what’
Overall • Ability
emphasis • Predictability

HMRC reporting lines in favour of national The top team is also in the process
Background process lines. of co-creating and sharing with the
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs top three tiers of the organisation.
is the UK’s tax authority. They are Trust context This is creating behaviour change
responsible for making sure that Interviewees talked about a at the top of the organisation and
the money is available to fund ‘difficult and chequered legacy’ filtering down the organisation, but
the UK’s public services and for for the HMRC since its inception it takes time and more development
helping families and individuals with following the merger of Revenue needs to be done with middle
targeted financial support. Their and Customs in 2005, with some managers: ‘We need to pay more
vision is: ‘We will close the tax gap, people ‘still licking the wounds of attention to engaging the middle.’
ensure our customers will feel that the merger, four years later’. In
the tax system is simple for them some instances this constant change Work is also going on to build
and even-handed, and we will be has created an environment where engagement by geography: ‘People
seen as a highly professional and ‘people still like their job and their relate to geography rather than a
efficient organisation.’ team but find it hard to commit to stream and the CEO is addressing
HMRC’. that with campuses and site-based
HMRC was formed by the merger communications.’ This is helping
of the Inland Revenue and Customs The wider political environment can to build geographical communities
& Excise in 2005. The integration also have an impact on levels of once again, which also helps to
agenda led to a significant trust as employees can find it hard increase trust levels as leaders are
headcount reduction over several to distinguish between decisions more local and visible.
years and a huge change agenda, made by their leaders and wider
which proved to be extremely changes made across government, Leadership assessment and
demanding in terms of capacity, such as changes to Civil Service development practices
capability and readiness for change. terms and conditions. For leadership assessment and
All of this bred high levels of development, a competency
uncertainty and job insecurity across However, a strong new top team framework is now used which
the organisation. Unsurprisingly, and CEO are perceived very is unified across the whole Civil
trust levels in senior managers positively and are planning ‘big Service and has at its heart the Civil
plummeted, whereas trust levels in change with the right intentions’. Service Values of honesty, integrity,
direct and local managers remained Building trust is a key part of this impartiality and objectivity. All
constant. In particular, people did change programme and trust interviewees felt the Civil Service
not like the abandonment of local workshops are currently being run. Values are all related to the issue of
Figure 9
Setting Direction
Seeing the Big Picture
Changing and Improving
Making Effective Decisions
Delivering Results Civil Service Engaging People

Achieving Commercial Outcomes Values Leading and Communicating
Delivering Value for Money Collaborating and Partnering
Managing a Quality Service Building Capability for All
Delivering at Pace

trust, but particularly the values of their ability to manage people and senior leadership development as
honesty and integrity. their behaviours, but renewed a group and trust has been on
focus is now being placed on the agenda. Trust threads through
The competency framework the latter. Traditionally leaders the narrative and is well received.
is accompanied by a detailed have also not been that good at However, in terms of the recognised
specification for roles and open performance management and characteristics of trustworthy
competition. The most important holding difficult conversations – leaders, interviewees felt that ability
issue, though, is how it is deployed the talent management system is and to some extent predictability
and used and the organisation has now forcing these conversations is assessed for but that integrity is
put in place a relentless assurance and managers are becoming more not assessed in any explicit way:
process that challenges every effective at providing objective ‘I’m not sure we have the skills
decision at every level and includes feedback on their teams’ strengths to assess for integrity, I’m not
involvement from the CEO and OD and weaknesses. sure any government department
director. Even so, some interviewees has.’ Others pointed to honest
feel that more challenge could Policy and practice gaps 360-degree conversations that are
be made around demonstrating Some interviewees believe that happening and tap into a leader’s
the right behaviours. There is also what you do and what you achieve benevolence.
a renewed focus on measurable are still valued more than the
performance, with 74 performance behaviours you use in the workplace Senior leadership development
indicators being reduced down to and that the ‘what and how’ should is also being provided by the
four. be equally balanced. There is a need organisation’s team of 12 non-
for the behaviours to change. There executive directors through master
HMRC is currently focusing on is also a need to be clearer on the classes on various issues and
building leadership capability as behaviours that are important and themes, including storytelling:
it recognises that there is a gap clearer on the reward for exhibiting ‘they are sharing what it feels
around the leadership agenda with such behaviours. This is part of the like being a leader going through
a historical focus purely on tax wider change programme being huge organisation change.’ The
learning: ‘Tax was seen as the be planned by the top team. big change agenda that the
all and end all and leadership and organisation is embarking on will
management have been an “add Some interviewees felt that need to be underpinned by senior
on”.’ As such there is a new single there is not enough focus on the leaders’ ability to build trust. A key
leadership development offering organisation’s purpose or ‘the noble skill for future leaders will be how
broken down by grade. Several of cause – keeping the UK economy they can keep or repair trust as
the interviewees felt that trust is key going through difficult times’. There they go through massive change:
to developing effective leadership seems to be a need to be stronger ‘We’ve got the whole toolkit, we’ve
within the organisation. In reward on common purpose and tying it all got everything there. It is just how
terms, there are some hard together – something which is part we use it. We can choose to really
decisions currently being made: of the transformation plans. Others emphasise that trust is important
‘actually now the behaviours are want to see impact measures and to us and appoint people who
coming under the spotlight – we metrics around the work that are clearly trustworthy, or who
are not going to put you in the top is currently being done around set about earning the trust of
bracket to get the bonuses, you’ve building trust. people. Or we can choose not to.
got to address your behaviour That’s how we will be judged and
before you get there.’ Impact of policies and practices on that’s how everyone will act in the
trust organisation. Because they will all
Work is also under way to create The competencies used to assess look up. If you look up now you see
a better awareness of talent and develop senior leaders are a group of people you can trust.’
management and succession implicitly a lot about trust, under
processes and of managing talent the themes of future, engage Examples of trustworthy leaders
in general. Departments and and deliver. There is a sense that At HMRC they are currently running
line managers are more familiar senior leaders really ‘care about monthly dial-ins for all staff where
with the mechanics of identifying the organisation and appreciate people can put questions to the
successors. Historically, succession the importance of trust more director general, CEO and the top
has been based on people’s than most’. In recent months team. A number of our interviewees
technical expertise rather than there has been a great deal of have been impressed with the great

honesty and bravery on these calls: of a trustworthy leader: ‘She is it’s a key enabler to having a more
‘The CEO tells the truth, doesn’t completely open to engaging staff efficient department… and I think
back down and doesn’t shy away at all levels, and is clearly passionate she’s clearly driving that with her
from things.’ In fact, a number and it’s that passion that’s coming new senior team as well.’
of our interviewees called out the over – around the trust agenda type
CEO in general as a great example of agenda – because she knows

lifecycle
Recruitment • Selection for senior positions via a competency • Explicit focus on honesty and integrity
framework unified across the whole Civil
Service with the Civil Service values of honesty,
integrity, impartiality and objectivity at its core.
The competency framework is accompanied
by a detailed specification for roles and open
competition.
Development • A new single leadership development offering • Explicit
broken down by grade. Workshops with senior
leaders where trust threads through the narrative
and is well received. Development is also
provided for senior leaders by the non-executive
directors through story-sharing.
Performance • A renewed focus on measurable performance, • Implicit
assessment with 74 performance indicators being reduced
down to 4.
Reward • In terms of reward, leadership behaviours are • More of an explicit focus on
beginning to come under the spotlight. behaviours
Overall • Ability
• Integrity

John Lewis Partnership in the partners’ interactions with leadership behaviours that John
Background each other. Long-term relationships Lewis has identified as desirable in
The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) and mutual accountability mean their current and future leaders,
comprises two main trading that in many cases trust is almost which run through the entire
brands: John Lewis, with 43 stores taken for granted: ‘I think we HR lifecycle. The overarching
throughout the United Kingdom just take trust – my perception is behavioural requirements are:
as well as a thriving online division, that we just take trust for granted ‘strategic vision’, ‘disciplined
and Waitrose, its supermarket chain in what we do because of who execution’, ‘enduring legacy’ and
with around 300 branches in the we are.’ This is also evident in ‘transformational change’. These are
UK. There is also a financial service the ratings on organisational deeply embedded in the leadership
company, John Lewis Insurance, trustworthiness given by our structure of the organisation
which forms part of the JLP. The participants. In terms of the and are used as a recruitment,
organisation employs almost 85,000 characteristics of trustworthiness, performance assessment and
people. In 2013 it generated while traditionally there seems development benchmark. The
revenues of £9.5 billion. to have been an emphasis on leadership behaviours also provide
benevolence and with it a sense the partners with a consistent
The most defining characteristic of of paternalism, a shift is taking language for what it means
JLP is that it is employee-owned, place that puts greater focus on to be a leader within the JLP.
one of the largest such commercial ability. This became noticeable Trustworthiness is predominantly
businesses in the world. As such, as participants spoke of the assessed implicitly based on these
co-ownership and strong relational importance of performance ratings behaviours.
structures are the building blocks and the need for leaders to prove
of the organisation. During the last their commercial, technical and John Lewis has an internal talent
five years, John Lewis has begun innovative ability. pool that is consulted for any
a major strategic review with the leader appointments. In terms of
aim of making it more process- and Leadership assessment and its external recruitment process,
cost-efficient and flexible. Across development practices John Lewis makes use of a range
the organisation, this became John Lewis’s senior ‘leadership of HR practices, including a
known as the Branch of the Future, community’ comprises about 120 comprehensive role profile against
or BOF. Based on this carefully people. The organisation is currently which candidates are assessed,
designed change initiative, trust restructuring how leaders are Kaizen, psychometrics (Hogan) and
in JLP actually rose following the assessed and developed as well as interviewing in order to construct
restructuring. As a result it is often how future leaders are recruited. a holistic picture or biography of
considered a trust success story. The main emphasis is on creating their external candidates. The desire
a consistent approach across all for a holistic understanding of the
Trust context functional areas that increases candidate is further embedded in
Trust is at the heart of John Lewis’s efficiency by removing existing what is referred to as the practice
mission, generally known as functional silos, leading to a more of whole-person interviewing: ‘So
‘Principle #1’: robust HR framework. This is you’re asking for examples both in
generally referred to as ‘Partnership the work life and in the home life.
The Partnership’s ultimate Services’, which comprises a You’re looking at the range of their
purpose is the happiness of separate division in addition to career and not just their permanent
all its members, through their those currently existing (John job. So you really allow the whole
worthwhile and satisfying Lewis, Waitrose and Corporate): light and colour of the individual
employment in a successful ‘Partnership Services…is all about to come through.’ By favouring
business. Because the being a shared service operating candidates who are not primarily
Partnership is owned in trust model, is about being really efficient motivated by money but instead
of its members, they share the to support growth because clearly ‘fit in’ with the culture that is John
responsibility of ownership as we’re a growing business and Lewis Partnership, the organisation
well as its rewards – profit, we couldn’t continue to work as further sets the foundation for the
knowledge and power. hard as we do now and not be selection of trustworthy leaders.
consistent moving forward.’
Trust is deeply engrained in the John Lewis encourages its leaders to
organisation’s values and culture In addition, underlying this drive take initiative for self-development.
and becomes particularly apparent for consistency and rigour are eight Contrary to other corporations,

they still make extensive use of
residential courses for leadership
development. There are also
plans to further increase the
‘‘ It is about accountability
actually. It’s how to be
challenged without being
defensive because as soon
rigour of leadership development as you get defensive, you
by introducing a six-monthly undermine the question and
development evaluation which you create an environment
provides points of decision-making in which people are not
on if a candidate may or may not comfortable to challenge. But
continue on the development when you’re accountable, you
programme. Generally, all current can say, yes, that is what it is
initiatives seem to suggest a and I’m comfortable in my own
stronger focus on performance and skin and I made that choice
hence ability. At the same time, because the business charges
HR processes are becoming more me with the responsibility
robust and rigorous as a result. of making those decisions
Nevertheless, strong relationships because that’s what my job
and showing care for others are
still perceived to be important, as
in parallel there is a shift towards
‘facts and figures’, the ability to
’
is.
In addition, being able to build

relationships and touch people in
think in a ‘matrix style’ and being one’s daily interactions are also
innovative. seen as important. Several of our
participants also emphasise the
Impact of policies and practices on need for leaders to engage with
trust their followers by developing a
Balancing the longstanding trust common level of understanding
that exists within the partners’ and sharing a ‘common world’:
relationships with more rigorous ‘Somebody who’s plugged in
and robust policies and practices to them and understands the
around leadership selection, importance of that would certainly
development and performance again probably be a more effective
assessment has been identified leader in the partnership.’
as central to the success of the
suggested change initiatives. Our
participants propose that this can
be achieved in two ways. First,
more responsibility is to be given
to line managers, which creates
an environment of inclusion and
openness. At the same time, the HR
function is involved at various stages
of the process in order to assist line
managers and perform formal ‘spot
checks’.
Examples of trustworthy leaders

Many of the desired behaviours of
trustworthy leaders can be linked
back to John Lewis’s underpinning
structure of co-ownership. For
example, being accountable for
one’s actions to the other partners
and the organisation as a whole is
seen as central:


lifecycle
Recruitment • First internal: talent pool, performance matrix • Implicit, through recruiting against
based leadership behaviours and company
• Secondary external: external resourcing values
community
• Recruitment practices: Kaizen, Hogan,
interviewing in order to develop holistic
candidate biography, passive audience
Development • John Lewis leadership behaviours: set of eight • Implicit, through developing leadership
identified behaviours behaviours
• Residential development in-house
• Individual initiative encouraged
Performance • Annual performance appraisal • Implicit, through assessing against
assessment • Nine-box talent grade leadership behaviours
• KPIs
Reward • Emphasis on non-financial rewards: company • Implicit, making use of non-
facilities financial benefits helps to establish
• Financial reward as secondary: bonus system trustworthiness
linked to performance
Overall • Benevolence • Trustworthiness embedded in culture
emphasis • Ability and partnership structure
• Integrity • Shift towards greater focus on ability
• Shift towards greater focus on ability,
underpinned by benevolence

Oxford University enough.’ Financial pressure is and honesty of a candidate and
Hospitals NHS Trust perceived to be adding to this focus on ‘technical expertise rather
Background situation with some perceived office than the whole person.’
In 2011, two of Oxford’s Hospital politics at the executive level. Others
Trusts – the John Radcliffe and commented that they would like However, various parts of the OUH
the Nuffield Orthopaedic Trust – to see more diversity at the top have been experimenting with new
merged to form the OUH. The of the organisation and greater ways of doing things. For instance,
CEO’s aspiration for the OUH is to transparency regarding executive in nursing selection, stakeholder
be in the top 10% of healthcare appointments. Engagement of events have been carried out with
and interviewees suggest that he all staff is seen to be one of the junior and senior staff and local
has made a big difference to the biggest challenges, with several groups and their feedback has been
hospital’s performance in the last interviewees believing that senior provided to the interview panel
two years. leaders could do more to connect and taken into account. This is
with ‘feelings on the shop floor’. helping to build ownership of the
The Oxford University Hospitals NHS process and ensure that the right
Trust (OUH) is one of the largest However, work is currently candidates are chosen. Several of
acute teaching trusts in the UK, progressing around leadership the interviewees felt that there
with a national and international development with a leadership should be a multi-disciplinary team
reputation for the excellence of its conference for 270 multidisciplinary of professionals on the interview
services and its role in teaching and senior leaders having taken place panels for all appointments.
research. The core values of the in spring 2013 and a leadership Currently medical consultants drive
OUH are excellence, compassion, strategy being considered by the most appointments. But a multi-
respect, delivery, learning and board. The objective is to place a disciplinary team would be able to
improvement. Collaboration and greater focus on leadership and explore leadership more generally as
partnership are also central to ensure quality leadership right well as candidates’ understanding
their approach in delivering the the way across the organisation. of the technical aspects of the job.
fundamental activities of patient Leaders are also being taught a
care teaching and research. These listening in action methodology so In the nursing field there is also
values determine the Oxford that employees are able to share collaboration happening across
University Hospital NHS Trust’s vision their opinions, views and any hospitals in the form of support
to be: concerns they might have on a networks that share and learn
regular basis and support a culture around various issues including
‘At the heart of a sustainable and of openness. things like what makes a really
outstanding, innovative, academic good ward sister and what does
health science system, working in Leadership assessment and a great candidate for this position
partnership and through networks development practices look like?
locally, nationally and internationally Interviewees maintain that senior
to deliver and develop excellence leadership selection is fairly The OUH is also currently piloting
and value in patient care, teaching traditional across the OUH. A a values-based interviewing (VBI)
and research within a culture of business case is put together for approach to selection with care
compassion and integrity. This funding by the hiring manager, a support workers and the acute
vision is underpinned by the Trust’s job description is developed which medical unit. Interviewees are
founding partnership with the is banded by HR and positions encouraged by the results: ‘We are
University of Oxford.’ are usually advertised internally recruiting very motivated people,
and then on NHS jobs. There with importantly the right values.’
Trust context has traditionally been a focus on VBI drills into people’s beliefs and
Interviewees talked about strong ensuring candidates have the right behaviours in much more depth:
codes of conduct and sound moral technical expertise with less of a ‘Candidates have the right attitude;
principles as a backdrop to the work focus on behaviours. they stay longer and are positive.’
of the OUH. However, concerns Eighty people have now been
were voiced around trust issues Several candidates feel that trained in the VBI technique and
within the organisation: ‘People traditional interviews aren’t there is a commitment to use this
don’t always trust one another... working and don’t provide enough going forward, including with senior
we haven’t got the culture right information about the candidate – appointments. It is much more time-
yet... we are still not transparent they don’t delve into the openness intensive than the traditional way of

interviewing but is clearly reaping in a culture that sometimes works Examples of trustworthy leaders
very positive results. against it. High challenge and high Several interviewees spoke about
support is what is needed.’ the OUH’s CEO as an example
When it comes to promotion the of a trustworthy leader: ‘He
assessment of senior leaders is not Impact of policies and practices has a national and international
that different from other levels on trust reputation and is very credible
within the organisation but it is Interviewees are clear that without with the ability to provide a wider
different around accountabilities. trust the OUH won’t have the viewpoint on all professions and is
One of the first objectives is ability to change in the way that great at making things happen.’
around behaviour – showing is required going forward. The Others spoke about his integrity,
evidence they have distilled listening in action groups appear willingness to challenge and desire
organisational values and have to be having a real impact on to do the right thing – ‘He has
embedded them into practice: the culture of the organisation: made a significant impact on the
‘what they have achieved and how ‘It is having a remarkable impact culture and quality and performance
they have achieved it.’ There are – people believe in it.’ This is of the organisation.’
also plans to include 360-degree helping to empower employees
feedback as part of this process for to get on with things and is seen A divisional nurse was highlighted
leaders in the future. as somewhat counter-cultural and by two interviewees as an example
something that needs to be ‘looked of a trustworthy leader. She is:
Policy and practice gaps after.’ ‘very trusted and performs well
Interviewees felt that there needed in a difficult job. She acts with
to be greater consistency in the The OUH values are being built integrity, has the right motives
quality of leadership across the into the whole talent process for and engages with all levels of
organisation: ‘There are pockets of employees but the organisation staff. She compensates for others’
good leadership but it is ad hoc.’ is large and it won’t happen dysfunctional behaviour.’ She is
overnight. Currently there are also described as holding counsel
Interviewees also felt that ‘trust is briefings to all staff and to line well, managing her emotions and
an explicit part of appointing people managers about patient experience behaving with consistency and
for those that look for it.’ But again and the fact that values should be predictability by being great on
this was not a consistent practice at the heart of the OUH. delivery.
across the organisation and more
needs to be done to embed this In terms of ability, benevolence, An executive director was also
into the interview process through integrity and predictability endorsed for his trustworthiness:
the use of methodologies such as interviewees believe that ability ‘He never gossips, is very
VBI: ‘There is lots of variability and and predictability of performance competent, very intelligent and
some complacency in academia is assessed in the more traditional very nice. He is great at keeping
of not looking beyond the interview and development confidences, listens and doesn’t lose
qualifications to the behaviour and methods, while benevolence and his temper.’ He also actively treats
attitudes.’ integrity are assessed as part of the people as his equal even when
values-based interviews: ‘The VBI they are not and helps to develop
The culture of the OUH is also seen tests all the different elements of people. He is also seen to lead from
by some as working against an trust that is why it is so important.’ ‘the bottom up.’
explicit focus on trust and therefore There is a recognition though
courage is needed to overcome that this needs to be built into all Others talked about the great
this: ‘We need to appoint people the performance practices of the people in general at the OUH with:
to have these values and attitudes organisation (such as recruitment, ‘huge commitment and a passion to
in the beginning – they need to development, promotion) to ensure do the right thing...it’s a vocation...a
demonstrate it – people need to that it is consistent across the way of life...’
see it in practice. They need to have organisation and embedded.
the courage to demonstrate that


lifecycle
Recruitment • Traditional approach. A business case is put • Implicit and explicitly through the
together for funding by the hiring manager, a job values-based interviewing pilot
description is developed which is banded by HR
and positions are advertised internally and then
on the NHS jobs site. However, the organisation
is piloting a new approach to interviewing –
values-based interviewing – which taps in to
leaders’ values and trustworthiness. Stakeholder
engagement is also used for recruitment in some
parts of the organisation such as nursing.
Development • Leadership conference for 270 multidisciplinary • Implicit
senior leaders. Leadership strategy being
considered by the board to ensure quality
leadership across the organisation. Leaders are
being taught a listening in action methodology
to support a culture of openness.
Performance • Senior leaders need to show evidence that they • Implicit
assessment have distilled organisational values and have
embedded them into practice with plans for 360
feedback to be incorporated in the future.
Overall • Ability
• Integrity

Serco many individuals choose to join’ these back to the characteristics of
Background Serco, people who apply to join trustworthy leaders, there seems
Serco is a British-based Serco because they want to ‘serve to be a lack of benevolence, or
international service company communities’. Given the strong the care for the wider good of
which provides services in vital human component of its work, the organisation and its members,
areas of public life, including trust is at the core of how Serco as well as integrity. At the same
providing safe transport, finding operates. One of the ways in which time, scores for ability, one of
sustainable jobs for the long-term it is put into practice is by giving its the characteristics of trustworthy
unemployed, helping patients employees the space or ‘latitude’ to organisations, are at above average
recover more quickly, improving the act within the boundaries defined levels. This is something that is the
local environment, rehabilitating by the company. subject of great focus and attention
offenders, protecting borders and as they recognise this as something
supporting the armed forces. Some Trust is also seen as prerequisite they want to change.
of its well-known serviced schemes for employee engagement, which
are Barclays Cycle Hire, the has become an important point Leadership assessment and
Docklands Light Railway and the on the organisation’s agenda, development practices
Dubai Metro. Serco now employs supported strongly by senior In order to create a more consistent
about 125,000 people globally management. There is a yearly approach towards leadership,
and its revenue grew by 5.7% to employee survey which measures members of the Global HR Team
£4.9 billion in 2012 alone. employee engagement. Improving at Serco have led a project in close
employee engagement, measured consultation with business leaders
Many of its employees work onsite by the results of this survey, is a worldwide, to refresh the company’s
with clients, but they want them to priority in the company’s balanced model of leadership capability. This is
feel connected to Serco and to be scorecard and a key objective in line with the organisation’s general
advocates of the brand. and KPI for leaders that will form transformation programme, which
part of their performance review. aims to integrate its operations
Serco is a low-margin business with Making engagement explicit and globally. Currently leaders are
a high people ratio. As such its measurable is also part of the predominantly recruited externally
employees and their managers are organisation’s wider goal to make through existing networks and
central to its operations. Recently, leaders accountable for their selected executive search partners;
Serco has faced public scrutiny behaviours. however, there is significant focus
which saw its share price drop on internal succession planning to
and the relationship with the UK Because of its international create an internal pipeline of leaders
government put under strain. As expansion and the public scrutiny who have the right values and
a result of these events, Serco’s of late, there have been some behaviours. Following final approval
CEO Chris Hyman stepped down challenges around trust in leadership by the Executive Committee, the
in October 2013. Following his within the organisation. Some new leadership model was launched
departure from the organisation, respondents expressed their concern by Ed Casey, interim Chief Executive
Serco announced a corporate about the dilution of Serco’s values and Geoff Lloyd, Group HR Director,
renewal programme with the aim in light of this global growth: in January 2014.
of re-establishing trust with the UK
government. One of the proposed ‘I think this is part of the challenge With their governing principles
measures includes an over-haul of the way that we’ve grown, the firmly at its core, the new model
of the induction, training and challenges we have faced but at aligns leadership capability to the
performance management practices the core I think we are but there company’s three strategic priorities:
and processes, which positions the have been some recent examples Customer, Operational Excellence
HR department at the heart of the when perhaps it has not been quite and People and Culture. And, in
renewal programme. as much as a core as it might have recognising that leadership is simply
been in the past.’ the way that each employee creates
Trust context and adds value, the new model
‘We build trust and respect’ is one A greater emphasis on financial sets leadership expectations for all
of Serco’s governing principles. results and profit growth has also employees, not just those in senior
Thus, trust is explicitly stated as part evoked leadership behaviours, positions. The leadership behaviours
of the organisation’s values. It is which are perceived as concerning and capabilities are defined for
these values that ‘are a key reason by some participants. Linking five tiers of leadership. This not

only helps to make leadership for during selection, developed in the literature: predictability,
relevant, it provides the company in leadership programmes and ability, integrity and benevolence.
with a structure for its leadership that will be rated and rewarded The greatest emphasis is probably
development pipeline and it gives as part of their performance on the latter two, which become
employees the clarity they need to management process, known as evident in exemplary leadership
develop their leadership career at the Performance and Development behaviours such as caring for the
Serco. Review (PDR). Deployed in this way, people you lead, embodying the
the new leadership model provides values of the organisation and
The capabilities in the new model a common global language for what being accountable for one’s actions.
will be embedded into people it means to be a leader at Serco at In addition, people in Serco are
practices that support all stages of all levels. hands-on and committed, thus
the employee lifecycle. This includes what matters for leaders is ‘what
standardised global tools, templates Impact of policies and practices on people show and what they do’.
and reports for role profiles, trust
selection interviewing, assessment Participants emphasise that some of Openness, visibility and
and selection reports, induction the practices they have introduced communication are also often
and orientation, leadership skills have helped to develop trust referred to when our participants
development, their process for relationships as they increased described what they would like
managing performance and into communication and understanding to see in Serco’s leaders, as well
reward schemes. across the organisation. as a ‘focus on mutual benefit’,
Nevertheless, given Serco’s very proactivity and positivity:
A leadership assessment process for entrepreneurial culture and lack of
the recruitment of senior leaders bureaucratic processes, there is an ‘I had a conversation with one
is being developed. It will involve agreement that there needs to be of the people I’m thinking about
a leader success profile, multiple a balance between flexibility and today, very senior person in the
interview stages and psychometric formalisation: ‘In fact, we’ve never company, had a great conversation
testing. The development of been bureaucratic or process driven, with him today. We were talking
this recruitment process is a and what we need to find now about some really difficult things
collaborative effort by existing is a balance between not being and on the telephone, which is
leaders of business functions and so process driven that there’s no never easy. And I think at the end
the HR team. As the organisation flexibility, but at least recognising of it, both of us felt that we’d
has grown globally, there is also that you need leaders to support exorcised a couple of demons in
the need to shift from recruiting what you’re driving in the business ourselves, but I think we both felt
UK leaders to developing the for [...], governance and all that that we had had an open discussion
leadership population internationally kind of stuff’. where we did disagree with each
in other geographies. The leadership other quite a lot, but fundamentally
capability of trust is an explicit part Examples of trustworthy leaders both of our intentions were good
of the new model. Along with the Trustworthy leaders in Serco and, therefore, we’d created the
other capabilities, trust will become portray the characteristics that platform for the next discussion.’
one of the capabilities that is looked have previously been identified


lifecycle
Recruitment • Primarily external at senior leadership level: Head- • Implicit and explicit through
hunters and relational networks organisational values embedded in role
• Some internal: Leadership pipeline success profile
• GROM: Global resourcing operating model
• Shared services: Unified process at the heart of
HR lifecycle
• Role profiles, include knowledge, skills,
capabilities and experience and are developed
through a collaborative approach between HR
and hiring leaders
• Multiple stage recruitment process, involving job
interviews and psychometric tests.
Development • Leadership model: Global leadership language: • Explicit in teaching about examples
Common unified narrative around leadership of trustworthy and untrustworthy
• Examples of development initiatives: leadership (light and shade) and trust
–– Master classes: employee engagement capability
–– Engagement case studies: highlighting best • Explicit and implicit through values
practice and the ‘how’ of leadership underlying leadership profile
Performance • Formal performance management system • Explicit through, for example,
assessment • Balanced scorecard approach engagement survey
• KPIs
• Tier-based measurement
Reward • Bonus system linked to KPIs • Explicit in bonus linked to engagement
• Pulse: Inspirational leadership award scores and rewarding of exemplary
leadership behaviours
Overall • Accountability • Trustworthiness as leadership behaviour
emphasis • Consistency • Trustworthy leaders as role models
• Shift from decentralised and ad hoc to centralised
and carefully managed

Unilever respondents link this to the Performance is assessed regularly
Background moral purpose that is underlying in Unilever, following a structured
Unilever is the world’s third largest Unilever’s policies and practices. process and involving a specialised
globally operating consumer In order to maintain integrity, the committee, the Functional Resource
goods company with two main organisation has several practices Committee. The performance
headquarters in the UK and the in place, including a hotline for management system is called ‘3+1’,
Netherlands. Its product range employees to report behaviours which means that each employee
includes over 400 brands with that they perceive as going against has three business objectives
well-known names such as Dove, its moral code and principles. Thus and one development objective.
Lynx, Ben & Jerry’s and Toni & some characteristics of trust are Progress is usually checked twice
Guy. The organisation is divided strongly embedded in Unilever’s a year against these criteria. In
into three main divisions: foods, heritage. addition, more-senior leaders in
home care and personal care and the organisation have a leadership
employs around 160,000 people Trust also becomes important when scorecard which sets out several key
across 90 countries. Over the years, being linked to the organisation’s performance indicators in addition
the organisation has sustained structure. A senior leader within to the ‘3+1’. All performance
strong business performance the organisation even perceives indicators are calibrated once a
with a revenue growth of nearly of trust as the central organising year and employees are rated
30% in the last four years and an principle, linking it to the very within a nine-box grid. Potential
increase of 10.5% in 2012 alone, specialist structure around which high-performers are then identified
accumulating in revenues of €50 Unilever is built: ‘I think as I said, based on their rating within the
billion. Paul Polman was installed as the organisation structure drives grid. In order to create more
Unilever’s CEO in 2009 and has held a set of practices and behaviours objectivity and transparency
the position since. which requires trust.’ From this around leader promotion decisions,
perspective, trust is linked more Unilever is currently introducing
Unilever was founded in 1930 strongly to ability as people across a new model, the JDI Model,
and it is particularly the legacy the organisation have to rely on based around judgement, drive
of Lord Leverhulme, one of the the expertise of their colleagues and influence. Linking this back to
founding fathers, that still guides in order to work effectively. As a the characteristics of trustworthy
the operations of the organisation. result generally, trustworthiness leaders, the focus seems to be
His mission, to make cleanliness in Unilever is interpreted mainly clearly on assessing and developing
commonplace while at the same as being along the dimensions of ability in Unilever’s leaders. At
time creating an environment that ability and integrity. the same time, performance is
is sustainable for the long term, measured over a period of three
is underpinning Unilever’s central Leadership assessment and years, which assesses consistency
purpose: ‘To make sustainable living development practices and continuity and hence enables
commonplace.’ Looking ahead in Unilever strongly emphasises superiors to implicitly test their
its annual report, Unilever sees one graduate recruitment for its junior employees’ predictability.
of the keys for ongoing success in leaders. This involves a formalised
re-establishing trust with its citizens, process including application forms, Leadership development is an
while placing leadership at the heart assessment centres, aptitude tests important component in Unilever’s
of this endeavour. and interviews. In addition, it hires HR cycle. This includes initiatives
career recruits with prior experience such as the Unilever Future
Trust context outside the organisation based on a Leaders Programme, mainly aimed
Unilever is guided by a set of set of standardised criteria and job at graduates following their
strong business principles. Linking descriptions. Both of these groups management trainee programme,
these back to our knowledge about are initially assessed on a set of and the Unilever Leadership
organisational trustworthiness, the behaviours that the organisation Development Programme for more-
focus is particularly on integrity. In requires of its potential leaders, senior roles. The importance of
fact, Unilever’s first principle states summarised in Unilever’s Standards development is also evident in the
its importance explicitly: ‘Always of Leadership. Both of these also ‘3+1’ that is used to assess leaders
work with integrity.’ Throughout form part of Unilever’s robust and the set-up of professional
the interviews, the ratings for talent pipeline, which it draws from academies. Development needs
integrity were particularly high, primarily when internal positions are identified in close collaboration
reflecting this focus. Many become available. with the line manager and mainly

focus on on-the-job skills and initiative, Talent Plus, Unilever Examples of trustworthy leaders
future development goals. These further aims to foster leadership Many of the leadership behaviours
are also summarised in the leader’s behaviours that are consistent with described as exemplary evolve
individual development plan (IDP). the organisation’s Standards of around the need for openness
Leadership. and transparency as well as being
Several participants suggested predictable and authentic: ‘There’s
that the strong focus on ability Impact of policies and practices on no point in having a leader who
embedded within the organisation’s trust will make one decision one day
performance culture may mean that The interplay between policies and another one another, who
benevolence as a characteristic of and practices and trust works two will play favourites, which is very,
trustworthiness is less important: ways in Unilever. On the one hand, very common, who will hide
‘I do think that in some ways our participants emphasise that HR information. So the best leaders
performance management system processes such as the JDI Model tend to be the most confident
does run the risk of not driving help to increase trust as they create themselves, most self-aware.’
– the unintended consequences a more objective and transparent
of driving more of a performance way of working: ‘From an employer In addition, given the structure
culture might be more independent perspective, there needs to be the and size of the organisation,
working rather than team and trust that people go through the being perceived as someone who
as you said, teamworking.’ assessments or conversations or acts with the best interest of
At the same time, due to the whatever else may be applied in the entire organisation at heart,
organisation’s emphasis on morality a transparent way.’ On the other rather than advancing their own
and integrity embedded within hand, members of the organisation interest or individual parts, is seen
its history, leader behaviours in also need to trust that the processes as trustworthy: ‘He has a real kind
achieving performance goals are are applied in a fair and open of sense of loyalty to Unilever the
very important. Hence, not only manner: ‘Being in your performance organisation, this is two different
the ‘what’ matters but also the review wanting to be promoted, parts of the organisation and so as
‘how’: ‘So you might be somebody there needs to be a trust, so there a result of that I always feel that
who delivers fantastic results but needs to be trust with employees he is trying to do what is best for
if it’s not in accordance with the that the processes work, that the Unilever rather than one part of
values and with the attitudes, your processes are transparent and that Unilever. And all his – all his actions,
chances of progression as a leader the processes are fair.’ you know his behaviours, what he
are not very good.’ In addition, says, how he does it, they all align
by introducing a talent-focused to doing what is best for Unilever.’


lifecycle
Recruitment • Primarily internal: graduate scheme, experienced • Implicit: assessment of Standards of
hires, talent pipeline Leadership
• Some external: recruitment agencies
Development • Individual development plan (IDP): overarching • Implicit: development of behaviours
future development goals congruent with Standards of Leadership
• Professional academy: job-focused skill
development
Performance • 3+1: combination of three strategic change goals • Implicit: through assessment of ability
assessment and one development goal as part of annual
performance review
• Functional Resource Committee: talent-listing
and performance assessment
Reward • Performance-based bonus • Implicit: through rewarding ability,
–– Short term: linked to annual business predictability and integrity
performance and individual performance vis-à-
vis personal goals, bonus payments
–– Long term: peer comparison with other
organisations, share options
Overall • Ability • Trustworthiness as delivering results and
emphasis • Integrity fulfilling objectives

Appendix 2: Additional information
about data collection and analysis
Our sources of data for this research

report were in qualitative form and
included:
• face-to-face interviews
• telephone interviews
• documentary evidence from
companies.
In 13 organisations we conducted
53 interviews lasting between an
hour and an hour-and-a-half with a
selection of informants, including:
• senior HR practitioner
• senior HR manager or director
operating at strategic level
• senior business manager or
director including CEO, general
manager, heads of department,
senior strategists.
These interviews were conducted

by various members of the
research team. All interviews were
audio-recorded and transcribed
professionally. A researcher then
coded the interviews using a
combination of techniques including
open coding and established codes
from previous trust research.
In addition to the above, we made

use of documentary evidence to
inform our analysis, provided by our
participating organisations such as
competency frameworks, selection
criteria, leadership behaviours and
leadership strategy documents.

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Notes

Notes

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Email: [email protected] Website: cipd.co.uk
Incorporated by Royal Charter Registered charity no.1079797
Issued: April 2014 Reference: 6525 © Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2014

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Research report

Cultivating trustworthy leaders

WORK WORKFORCE WORKPLACE

iii Cultivating trustworthy leaders

1 Cultivating trustworthy leaders 10

2 The ecosystem of trust 15

3 The interplay between trust and practices and policies 22

Appendix 1: The case studies 26

Appendix 2: Additional information about data collection and analysis 60

1 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

1 Trust remains a concern problem-solving, engagement and leadership behaviour has to be

2 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Low trust Highly

3 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

4 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

5 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

6 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

7 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Figure 1: Drivers of trustworthiness (Dietz and Den Hartog 2006)

Ability Benevolence Integrity Predictability

8 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Growing trustworthy Organisational cultures

9 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Similarly, the John Lewis Partnership

11 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

‘‘ They are sharing what it feels

‘‘ The personal e-survey is more

12 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Important to note is that the reward

In addition, the organisation’s own

‘‘ It’s more a market forces

An important point in relation

In terms of talent retention,

‘‘ We don’t pay everybody as

On the other hand, GKN, the

long-established global engineering

13 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

On the other hand, what we also

14 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Type 1 – Emphasising ability

Another participant likened the

is the technical element as leaders

In an organisation such as Unilever,

Figure 3: Types of trustworthiness

15 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Other organisations also emphasise

This expectation to show capability

An additional example is that of

Someone who is perceived to be

‘‘ Meeting your targets and

16 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

‘‘ There is a high level of trust,

The risk of emphasising benevolence

Potential risks of Type 2

17 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

It also seems as if predictability

Figure 4: Factors influencing the meaning of trustworthiness

18 Cultivating trustworthy leaders

This is important because employees

What we also see is that in order to