Leadership, Commitment, and the Failure of Trust – What Companies Must Do to Thrive

Abstract

Employees limit their commitment and organizations fail to be competitive for predictable reasons that have been well-documented (Nobel, 2011). According to the extensive research of the Gallup corporation, much of that failure is attributed to ineffective leadership (Clifton & Harter, 2019). The primary failure of those who lead is their inability to be perceived as being worthy of their employees’ trust – a problem that organization leaders have faced for decades (Barnard, 1938). Trust, the willing followership of a leader in the expectant hope that the leader will honor implied promises(Caldwell, 2019), has been elusive in organizations of all types, according to research reported in the Harvard Business Review (Bingham, 2017).