Publications

At the crossroads of trust and distrust

Skepticism and ambivalence towards business.

Trust And Distrust | Management | Business

Public Trust in Business (Cambridge University Press), 2014

What do high levels of distrust in business really mean? Trust and distrust are not ends of the same continuum; rather, trust and distrust are two distinct phenomena, and both can exist simultaneously with respect to the public’s attitudes toward business. The simultaneous coexistence of trust and distrust creates the condition of ambivalence toward business. Trust tends to be a fairly stable phenomenon, but distrust also appears to be a resilient phenomenon, defining a new business landscape in which it does not fade away but is always present, if not always salient.

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Recommended papers

Second Acts and Second Chances

The Bumpy Road to Redemption

Author(s): Prof. Robert J. Bies, Laurie J. Barclay, Thomas M. Tripp

Journal of Management Inquiry, 2021

Throughout history, there are numerous examples of business and government leaders who have fallen from grace only to rise again, and have a “second act” and a “second chance” as a legitimate social actor or leader—that is, they achieved redemption. We explore “the road to redemption” of leaders—when and why it occurs, and what “bumps” prevent it. In our analysis, we conceptualize redemption as a process with three elements—remorse, rehabilitation, and restoration—and as an outcome (the restoration of legitimacy). We argue that achieving redemption is not a product of chance; rather, it is a social construction process of narrative creation and identity construction involving many parties. Also, the road to redemption is shaped by cultural-specific factors—and it is temporally dependent. From this framework, we identify new directions for the theory and practice of leadership.

Subject: Redemption, Leadership, Management, Business.
Trust and Distrust

New Relationships and Realities

Author(s): Prof. Robert J. Bies, Roy J. Lewicki, Daniel J. McAllister

The Academy of Management Review, 1998

We propose a new theoretical framework for understanding simultaneous trust and distrust within relationships, grounded in assumptions of multidimensionality and the inherent tensions of relationships, and we separate th

Subject: Management, Distrust, Business.

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