Trust Me, It May Take More Than Plain English …
OK, so restoring trust in U.S. corporations may require more than the rapid adoption of plain English.
I looked at my previous post and wrinkled my nose -– on second read, it comes across a bit too simple-minded (however, self-kudos for including the Japanese symbol for trust; nice touch).
I followed up with Edelman to ask them about which survey results struck their Trust Barometer veterans. They pointed me to the reasons behind declining trust in U.S. corporations.
The survey asked a follow-up question that gives some insights into why U.S. corporations are 77 percent less trusted by respondents this year compared to last year. Although the economic crisis is the dominant reason given globally (for declining trust in worldwide corporations), U.S. reasons focus more on executive inequality, corporate greed, and unethical behavior.
Here are the top four reasons why respondents’ trust in U.S. companies is waning:
Executive Inequality: 33 percent
Economic Crisis: 31 percent
Poor Business Performance: 30 percent
Corruption or Ethical Issues: 22 percent
###
February 26th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
No surprise that “executive inequality” is the top factor, at least among U.S. respondents. Peter Drucker warned us long ago that if the ratio of executive pay to worker pay goes higher than 20-1, corporate morale starts to suffer. We’re way, way above that these days — where are we now, in the hundreds-to-1, I’m guessing? And it’s corroding trust as well as morale. Yet despite all the complaints about out-of-control CEO pay, nothing ever seems to change.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
It doesn’t seem like any of those areas will improve soon, especially executive inequality, even with a say on pay bill. So what does the downward spiraling level of trust mean for us?
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment:
Register Here or Log in Here.
Big Fat Finance Blogs
Advertisement
Recent Posts
Archives
Your Account
Archived Categories
Subscribe