Public Trust

Trust is fragile and powerful. Trust allows insecurity in life to be tolerable, changing our perspectives to view challenges as opportunities as opposed to threats. Time builds trust but yet trust can be shattered almost instantaneously. Human nature is a dichotomy of sorts, tugging us emotionally and rationally at the same time. Logically, we analyze and scrutinize the pros and cons and then decide whether someone deserves our trust. Emotionally, we feel it in our gut when we trust someone which seems to be the most common method and also the very reason why trust is so delicate.

In an organizational setting, trust is the driving strength. We only tend to acknowledge such a force when this cornerstone is missing. In a trustworthy organization, there is productivity, calmness, loyalty, teamwork, delegation, empowerment, and reciprocity. Compare it to a child. There’s a point in parenthood when we give our children our trust. If it’s used wisely, they grow and more responsibility is entrusted. If not, trust is removed and the quality of relationships may deteriorate. Walking through life, we observe. People can make promises emphatically but until their behavior matches their words, trust can be breached. We learn to listen half-heartedly, watching actions while ignoring images that are portrayed and expressions. We know the ones who keep their promises; those are the people we trust.

There are some professions who have gained a collective trust such as doctors or policemen. What about lawyers and politicians? Some professions have a steeper hill to climb to gain the public’s trust. Listen to me appeals aren’t enough. Trust needs to be rebuilt by professions through actions. Trust in politics, public service jobs, and business management is one of the most important issues today.

Public office is a public trust. Those who manage the government and run the various departments must be candid, accountable and loyal. It’s only then when they are worthy of the public’s trust. Public servants are entrusted to provide services that are efficient, dependable and free from dishonesty and misconduct. What are some of the locales that provide such services?

1. Those providers that are given a monopoly by the government: Bus and railway companies.


2. Public regulatory organizations within the financial and real estate sectors.


3. Organizations that spend and disburse public funds: Universities, hospitals.


4. Mass media Organizations: Television and broadcasting.


5. And any other organization that performs public service functions: Land development, charities etc.

Public service and administration needs to be recognized, stemming from the desire to care for others. We can be idealistic about our public servants but still we mustn’t be naïve. When trust is breached, no one wins. We can exercise our trust in those public servants, but yet we can still use preventative measures to protect ourselves. This isn't pessimism but more hope with a safety net.
Take the example of a retired clerk at the Department of Taxation. His breach of privacy earned him time in jail. He stole the identities of taxpayers, deceased family members and children where he wracked up credit card charges of over $200,000 and which ultimately gave him six months in jail and a bill of $220,000. Ultimately, he gained 90 credit cards from 20 banks using the fake ID’s he obtained using the stolen identities (Read the full story here).

We can hope that those organizations or employees that require our social security numbers are trustworthy -- after all in public services we have no choice -- but our safety net here,where we are in control, would be identity theft protection. The government’s safety net could be employee screening, teaching and promoting ethical behavior, and other similar methods. The moral of the story? Let’s be as cautious and trusting as we can be and must be, but let’s trust using wisdom. Life is not foolproof so there will always be outliers among the norm.