Trustworthiness : a dialectical perspective

Trustworthiness is the core feature of the most productive and effective organizations. While the market value of an economic or business entity would mostly correspond to its trust-equity, however, an erosion of trust-equity will cause the market-value to nose dive. Studies have demonstrated that the ‘distrust’ or a ‘lack of trustworthiness’ can cost a business or government billions of dollars. Lack of trust within an organization can result in employee disengagement and organizational atrophy. An untrustworthy organization will not only alienate its employees, it will also cause damage to customer interests. In this article, we postulate how trustworthiness can act as a dialectical fulcrum between the diametrically opposing market/social forces within an economic/political organization—such as self-interest versus public good, cooperation versus competition, freedom versus control, labor versus capital, and production versus consumption