The Decision to Trust: How Leaders Create High-Trust Organizations

by Robert F. Hurley

A proven model to create high-performing, high-trust organizations Globally, there has been a decline in trust over the past few decades, and only a third of Americans believe they can trust the government, big business, and large institutions. In The Decision to Trust, Robert Hurley explains how this new culture of cynicism and distrust creates many problems, and why it is almost impossible to manage an organization well if its people do not trust one another. High-performing, world-class companies are almost always high-trust environments. Without this elusive, important ingredient, companies cannot attract or retain top talent. In this book, Hurley reveals a new model to measure and repair trust with colleagues managers and employees. Covering trust building in teams, across functions, within organizations and across national cultures, The Decision to Trust shows how any organization can improve trust and the bottom line.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Management, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 13, 2011

Reviews

[Mario Sailer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author explains his very compelling decision to trust model (DTM) that explains on which factors trust depends. There are tree Trustor Factors how he calls them, which depend on the disposition of the individual or in case of groups, organizations or cultures on the average disposition of their members. These Trustor Factors describe a trustor's generalized tendency to trust and they are hard do alter. They are:

1. Risk Tolerance
2. (Personal) Adjustment (meaning more or less the self-confidence)
3. Power

All of them may be low or high. The higher they are, the more likely it is that the person or group/organization/culture will trust.

But there are also Situational Factors that can be altered because they depend on the situation one is in.

4. Situational Security (low or high)
5. Similarities (not apparent or apparent)
6. Interests (conflicting or aligned)
7. Benevolent Concern (not demonstrated or demonstrated)
8. Capability (low or high)
9. Predictability/Integrity (low or high)
10. Communication (poor or good)

He then explains this model for trust in leadership an management, trust in organizations, building trust within teams and building trust across groups and national cultures.

Although most of the time the basic principles of the DTM repeat, no matter if they are applied to individuals, organizations, teams and so forth, which makes the book less interesting the more one reads, the model itself is very interesting.

[Psikowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched factors contributing to trust. Second half of book discusses how to establish, maintain, or restore team among individuals, teams, and organizations.

[Jurgen Appelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great model, lot of research, somewhat boring writing style.

[Sergei Kotlov · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's definitely one of the best books I read on trust. Deep, supported by a very impressive number of researches and resources. A must read!