Trust in senior management in the public sector
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450710776281 |
| Published date | 21 August 2007 |
| Date | 21 August 2007 |
| Pages | 458-468 |
| Author | Judy Pate,Phillip Beaumont,Sandra Stewart |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Trust in senior management in
the public sector
Judy Pate, Phillip Beaumont and Sandra Stewart
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the important issue of trust in senior management
in the public sector. More specifically, the research aims to explore to what extent has there been a
downward spiral of trust in public sector senior management in the eyes of their employees in recent
years, and whether this trend spans the public sector as a whole.
Design/methodology/appro ach – This paper draws on both quanti tative and qualitative
methodologies from two public sector organisations, which are of very different character. The
question being asking of the data is whether a relatively similar percentage of the workforce lacks
trust in senior management and whether this is for essentially the same reasons. An attitude survey of
the population of both case study organisations was conducted in conjunction with focus groups.
Findings – The findings in the paper revealed two important matters. First, longitudinal data
indicates that relative distrust of senior management is enduring and cannot be explained or
rationalised by merely a short-term breakdown of communication. The second conclusion from the
data is that although the two case study organisations had dramatically different structural
characteristics, histories and workforce compositions, the degree of lack of trust in senior management
was remarkably similar both as regards extent and leading cause of this.
Practical implications – The findings from two very different public sector organisations suggest
that there is a persistent lack of trust in senior management. This finding has important implications
for managing the workforce as a lack of trust has significant implications for employee attitudes and
behaviour.
Originality/value – This paper raises some important concerns with regards to the quality of the
employee-employer relationship in the public sector.
Keywords Trust, Senior management, Public sector organizations, Employees
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
“Union study shows staff anger with quango bosses” (The Scotsman Newspaper, 2004).
A study conducted by the public sector union, Unison, uncovered that 88 percent of
employees had no confidence or trust in the abilities of their senior management. The
study conducted by Unison was, however, only conducted in a single public sector
body; therefore the question of generalisability must be raised. A similar trend,
however, was revealed by a recent MORI survey that aims to assess public (across a
range of organisations) and private sector employee attitudes on a biannual basis. The
study brought to light that only 40 percent of public sector employees’ felt that senior
management had a clear vision of their future strategy (Coats, 2005).
The previous are interesting and suggestive findings but they involve only a limited
timeframe and limited detail. Our aim here is to complement this work but more
importantly to develop their findings further. Specifically we present and analyse data
from two public sector organisations, but ones of very different character. The question
we are asking of the data is whether a relatively similar percentage of the workforce
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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ER
29,5
458
Received July 2006
Revised December 2006
Accepted December 2006
Employee Relations
Vol. 29 No. 5, 2007
pp. 458-468
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450710776281
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