ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how trust or lack of it affects both the internal organizational culture as well as external relationships. The chapter addresses two types of trust: Interpersonal and organizational. It explores what it takes to become trustworthy and how this relates to the company reputation.
While trust in most organizations is low currently, it is higher in sustainable companies. This is significant because trust affects customer loyalty as well as employee well-being and engagement. Trust has an impact on collaboration and innovation – factors that affect the success of all companies, especially those that wish to become sustainable.
The chapter examines how companies go about building trust, both interpersonal and organizational, based on specific cases of companies that have succeeded in these endeavors. The chapter includes an assessment process to be used to evaluate the level of trust within the readers’ own companies and a reflection exercise on how readers might improve the levels of trust in their own organizations.
