Professor’s talk explores trust in our leaders and organisations

A free professorial lecture taking place at Coventry University on Tuesday 16th October will look at developing and restoring trust in organisations, and the added benefits this can bring.

Trust in organizations is a fragile yet vital commodity. Recent media attention has identified a number of cases where trust is being violated, from Enron to RBS. Professor Rosalind Searle, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Psychology, will draw on a range of studies to show why trust matters to organisations - revealing the pivotal role of systems, particularly human resource management (HRM) in developing and maintaining trust.

From a recent CIPD study, Professor Searle will highlight the centrality of manager, both direct and also at the top of the organisation, in breaching and restoring trust. In a time of cost cutting she argues employers are missing out on ‘the trust dividend’ that can lead to more productive, healthier and lower cost organisations.

The lecture will also show it is critical for organisational success to foster trust, influencing the effectiveness, efficiency and performance of businesses. As worker with high employer trust stay longer, put in more effort and work more cooperatively and engage less frequently in counterproductive behaviour.

Professor Searle is Co-Convenor of the European Group of Organisational Studies’ Standing Working Group on Organisational Trust, Chair of British Psychological Society's Division of Occupational Psychology’s International Strategy Liaison Group, and a much in-demand media commentator on trust in organisations.

Over the last six years, she has pioneered research attention on organisational level trust and especially the role of HRM and control systems. In this lecture she also outlines some of the latest insights from her research in the field.

This lecture is the second of the professorial lecture’s series which will discuss a different topic each month. Coming up later in 2012 and in early 2013:

• Learning meets experience in engineering education - Professor John Davies, 29th November 2012

• Cultural relations in a world of difference - Professor Mike Hardy, 4th December 2012

• They shoot, but do they score - where to now for sport in the 21st century? – Professor Simon Chadwick, 31st January 2013

• The state of mathematics education in England and what Coventry University is doing about it – Professor Duncan Lawson, 21st February 2013.

All the lectures are free and open to the public, taking place from 4pm at the TechnoCentre, Coventry Technology Park.

To book a place please visit the Professorial Lectures page. 

For further information please contact Sarah-Jane Dean, Communications Assistant, Coventry University, on +44 (0)24 7688 8245 or email sarah-jane.dean@coventry.ac.uk.