Military Review English Edition September-October 2013 | Page 79

TRUST

Component (Element)

Based on perceptions of:

Likely causes of violations
Civil-military cultural gap;

Remedy

Benevolence

Good will & Kindness

Increased external control & monitoring

Integrity

Honesty & fairness; Adherence to commitments

Self-Serving or behavior

Characterize the behavior as an anomoly; distance; or correct -

Competence

Skills & Knowledge -especially in core

Acknowledge, then Failures steps to correct CANDOR- Immediately acknowledge and remedy inconsistent behavior; correct apparent incongruence

Predictability (behavior)

behavior

Inconsistent, contradictory or

Creating trust takes a lifetime; losing it takes a moment.
Figure 2 Public Trust: Violation-Remedy Matrix

Schepker offer the definition that public trust is “the degree to which the general public as a stakeholder group holds a collective trust orientation toward an organization.”20 For the Army, this represents the aggregate perception of trust held by the American public in the Army, as a profession, distinguishable from both interpersonal and organizational trust. Through examination and understanding of the nature of public trust, the profession’s leadership might avoid the general commentary offered by organizational scholars Kouzes and Posner. Many wonder if there are any leaders left who have the strength of character to sustain their trust. Substantial numbers of people believe that leaders lack the capability to guide business and governmental instituMILITARY REVIEW ? September-October 2013

tions to greatness in this intensely turbulent and competitive global marketplace. There is the gnawing sense in many corridors that leaders are not competent to handle the tough challenges; that they are not telling us the truth; and that they are more motivated by greed and self-interest than by concerns for the customer, the employees, or the country.21 Drawing from a variety of disciplines, political scientist Seok-Eun Kim conceptualized trust as the multifaceted integration of behavioral, cognitive, and affective elements. These three elements merge “into a mutually supporting construct that is collectively called trust.”22 Poppo and Schepker extended previous trust literature by developing a more nuanced multifaceted construction of public
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