A Matter of Trust
Many people consider trust to be one of the most necessary components of successful working and personal relationships. Linda Stroh, PhD, Faculty Scholar and HRER professor in the Graduate School of Business, recently published Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life (Praeger, 2007). Although Stroh’s initial focus was on trust in the workplace, she soon discovered that people found it difficult to discuss trust in the workplace without also talking about trust in their personal lives. She did find differences between the two arenas. “In our personal lives, we are much more likely to use our emotions to help us make trust decisions; consequently, we are more likely to overlook bad behaviors,” Stroh says. “In our workplaces, if we know someone who has lied or betrayed others, we rarely overlook those past behaviors and would almost always choose not to have relationships with those people.” Stroh asks her readers to evaluate how trustworthy they are and hopes the knowledge garnered from her book will help them both identify and become more trustworthy people.
“I feel like the book has helped the people I interviewed, the people who’ve read the book, and myself to view trust and its role in our lives in a different way,” says Stroh. “I encourage people to continue that dialogue.”