Trust, Trustworthiness, and Stewardship

This book identifies insights about the ethical issues associated with trust and trustworthiness, and their relationship to the leader's obligations as an ethical steward. The purpose of this book is to identify the importance of trust and trustworthiness in the "Transformative Era", a time when constant change and the increasing demands of customers make it paramount for organisations to obtain the commitment, followership, and extra-role behaviours required to compete in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous global marketplace. Unfortunately, leaders today have failed to earn the trust of others by creating arms-length transactional relationships that destroy employee commitment. This book frames the characteristics of the "Transformative Era" and explains how leaders can restore the trust that they have lost by honouring the steward's obligation to create long-term wealth and serve the interests of all stakeholders. In a world where 71% of all employees are actively looking for new job opportunities and only 16% of employees worldwide describe themselves as "actively engaged" in their work, the importance of reframing the employer-employee relationship demands immediate attention. This book identifies the conditions which make up today's "Transformative Era" and explains how and why leaders destroy trust in the modern organisation. It then identifies how leaders can adopt a Transformative Approach to creating organisations that are prepared to survive the turmoil of the modern economy.