RESEARCH: It is hard to find any good news business stories at the moment but a new report from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) offers a small glimmer of hope in the area of employee/employer relations.
According to the ILM’s 2011 Index of Leadership Trust, UK employees are more confident in their bosses’ ability to get them through difficult times than at any time during the last three years. Unfortunately it really is only a glimmer as the annual report, now in its third year, shows a persistent failure by UK business leaders to inspire trust, with larger organizations and particularly CEOs in the public sector performing badly.
ILM Chairman, Peter Cheese, writes in the Foreword: “We know that organizations with high levels of trust enjoy clear economic benefits, it shows that adopting a strong stance on ethics is not just the right thing to do, but offers a performance pay-off too”. If this is so, and UK Chancellor George Osborne’s prediction this week of “brighter (economic) seas beyond”, it will be organizations that develop a leadership culture that its employees as well as its customers fully trust that will prosper in future.
Given a growing emphasis on ethical corporate behavior, the IML researchers were surprised half of respondents said their organization put financial goals above ethical considerations, saying “with ethics increasingly a point of competitive advantage in the war for talent and consumers alike, this is of real concern” and that “employees need to know that their leaders not only have the skills and capability to do things right, but that they have the integrity and awareness to do the right thing”.
The online survey was conducted between 24 May and 9 June 2011. 2,516 respondents took part a sample selected to be broadly representative of the UK employee population. Similar population samples were used in 2010 and 2009, making comparisons with previous years possible.
The sample was quota controlled to ensure an appropriate balance of managers and non-managers (in a 20:80 ratio) and public and private sector employees (40:60 ratio). Few gender differences in were apparent in the findings, and the age, ethnicity and regional distribution of the sample broadly reflected the UK workforce distribution.
The research focused on six key criteria:
· Ability – the leader’s ability to do their job (knowing)
· Understanding – displaying knowledge and understanding of their employees’ roles and responsibilities (knowing)
· Fairness – behaving fairly and showing concern for the welfare of employees (doing)
· Openness – being accessible and receptive to ideas and opinions (doing)
· Integrity – striving to be honest and fair in decision making (being)
· Consistency – behaving in a reliable and predictable manner (being)
Further Information
Read the Index of Leadership Trust report on ethics and trust
Read this recent post on ethical leadership after the Japanese tsunami
Read this article on ‘trust’ from Developing Leaders
