It’s not just petrol and food that are in short supply. There is a widespread shortage of trust in organisations. However it is not evenly spread. Employees report trusting their immediate line manager almost as much as their colleagues. However they often believe that their line manager is being kept in the dark by their manager. They tend to accept as true their line managers  statement,” I don’t know any more than you.” No one trusts the,”Higher ups”.

Individuals report not trusting senior managers but their definition of senior management varies depending on their position in the hierarchy. The general view of employees appears to be that senior managers are those one removed from your line manager in other words your line managers boss.

Basically the level of trust an individual has is greatly determined by the frequency of their interaction with the other person. Hence the front line employee who has never met, the rather remote, chief executive or director(s) doesn’t trust them anywhere near as much as they trust their immediate line manager.

The significance of all this is that senior managers should not be surprised that employee surveys and other forms of feedback report low levels of trust in senior management. This is such a frequent finding in large to middle size organisations it’s surprising senior managers find it surprising. This distrust is not personal although some senior managers take it as such.

It’s simply that employees believe that senior managers routinely withhold controversial information, chose not to reveal their discussions where they know the options under consideration will be  unpopular , “no point in upsetting  people over something that may not happen”. The cautious language managers use makes employees suspicious for example “ at this point in time no decision has  been made “ . Meaning the board has not formerly endorsed this decision, yet.

Most organisations respond to this lack of trust by looking to establish a more open culture and improving communication . But unless an organisation is going to radically review how decisions are made a chief executive’s blog, senior management roadshows , employee engagement groups or other such methods to improve communication are not going to increase levels of trust.

In my experience where employees have become more trusting of senior management it is because of increased contact.  If a group of employees have regular contact with a senior manager as part of a focus group then their  level of trust not only of that manager but senior managers in general will increase. However the interaction does need to be informal, relaxed and participative. I witnessed a change in how senior managers were viewed when an organisation I worked for ran a series of three day equality and diversity awareness courses where senior managers participate along side attendees from across the organisation.

This is not what senior managers want to hear. They don’t have the time in their already over crowded working week. So the question is how important is it that employees trust senior managers in this organisation?