ABSTRACT
With organizations and their executives frequently in the news for violating the trust of their customers and shareholders, US business schools who train many of these executive decision makers have begun to require courses in business ethics. All approaches to teaching trust are likely to start with research, cases and/or video clips that give students and executives a feel for the personal, professional and legal ramifications of untrustworthy behaviour as well as the organizational and financial costs of such behaviour. Teaching the core components of trustworthiness is the foundation of this approach. This often entails instruction in Mayer, Davis and Schoorman's (1995) Ability, Benevolence, Integrity (ABI) model, which has received wide spread validation. Teaching exercises from this approach focus on helping students identify the gap between their intended trustworthiness and their behaviour. The social constructionist approach to teaching about trust views trust and trustworthiness as actively co-constructed between individuals.
