Learning, Development, and Trust?

Americans trust and confidence in corporations and their executives is reaching all time lows. According to a Hart Teeter poll conducted for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, confidence in corporations declined to 12% in July 2002 from 26% about two years earlier. A Harris Interactive poll in 2002 found that 68% of those surveyed believed that business executives were less honest and trustworthy than they were 10 years ago.

Theories abound as to the root cause of the current crisis ranging from the actions of a few “bad apples” to systemic problems related to the pressure on executives to maximize short-term shareholder returns. Regardless of the root cause, training and development can and should play a critical role in restoring confidence and trust primarily by promoting honesty and integrity as key leadership competencies. Interestingly, in a recent benchmarking study by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University, only 2 of the 19 companies considered to have the “best in class” leadership development programs identified “honesty” and “integrity” as leadership competencies (Sovina, Wherry, & Stepp, 2003).

While it has generally been assumed that all leaders possess the basic competencies of honesty and integrity, perhaps these competencies should no longer be taken for granted. The pressure faced by individuals in corporations has the ability to force good managers to have ethical lapses. Learning and development programs need to provide leaders with the understanding and tools to be able to address ethical issues with greater understanding, fortitude, and skill. According to Kenneth Andrews, a former editor of the Harvard Business Review, three individual qualities need to be developed among leaders to assist them in addressing ethical decisions. He states,

The first is competence to recognize ethical issues and to think through the consequences of alternative resolutions. The second is self-confidence to seek out different points of view and then to decide what is right at a given time and place, in a particular set of relationships and circumstances. The third is what William James called tough-mindedness, which in management is the willingness to make decision when all that needs to be known cannot be know and when the questions that press for answers have no established and incontrovertible solutions. (Kenneth Andrews, “Ethics in Practice,” Harvard Business Review on Corporate Ethics, page 72)

Leadership skills in addressing ethical decisions can be developed in leaders. It is critical that learning and development programs play greater attention to these important business issue and support leaders in their effort to restore confidence and trust in companies.