Trust-Its Benefits 183employees do not abuse organisational assets or cause reputational dam-
age. This is time-consuming and costly.
In the case of external stakeholders too, distrust translates into dis-
loyalty. When they lose trust in an organisation, they are likely to turn
their backs on the organisation. When an organisation is perceived to
lack trustworthiness it has suffered serious damage to its reputation that
is costly to reverse. Protecting trust therefore makes good sense to both
leaders and organisations.
- Trust Facilitates Collaboration
New forms of work that have emerged in the global economy pose
new challenges to organizations in terms of trust. With the breakdown of
hierarchical structures into flatter company structures, teamwork has
become much more important. Team work presupposes interaction and
collaboration, and cannot work unless team members trust one another.
Team members have to form alliances and expertise needs to be shared.
The absence of trust slows down the formation of teams and impedes
team performance. Organisations and leaders who rely on team work
thus need to understand and manage trust. - Trust Unlocks Knowledge
Organisations have come to recognize the crucial role of knowledge
in our knowledge society. Knowledge is the new capital and is recog-
nized as such in the International Integrated Reporting Framework^183.
The ability of an organization to attract and retain people with expert
knowledge has become vital for its success. In order to operate optimal-
ly, organisations needs to gain access to the knowledge of its employees
and needs to ensure that employees share knowledge with those who can
benefit from it. Access to, and flow of, knowledge and information de-
pends to a large extent on the levels of trust in an organization. As em-
ployees come to realize that knowledge is their biggest asset, they will
183
IIRC, 2013