Seeing Trust Through

According toMintzberg (1991), strategic thinking is not finished if nothing gets done. Therefore, strategic thinking is also seeing through and putting strategic plans into action. Pfeffer and Sutton (2000) remark that organizational performance often depends more on how managers are able to turn knowledge into action than on knowing the right things to do. Seeing trust through takes us back to trust imperatives, trust building processes and trust principles, and the importance of putting trust into action.

Getting trust through may sometimes be a rather slow process, starting even from the situation in the absence of trust where also some amount of control is needed. However, when managers have decided to follow trust principles, they have to continue this line even in the time of temporary retrogression or failures. Ciancutti and Steding (2000), who talk about leadership organizations that are based on earned trust, state that naturally it is possible to lead also by fear, but it does not produce good results. In addition, they emphasize closure and commitment as the two most essential trust principles and present: "The clarity and focus that come from consistent closure and genuine commitment are the very foundation of a trust-based organization. When people know who is going to do what, by when, and that people mean what they say, then they can trust one another. There may be slippage from time to time, but even handling the slippage is part of your Trust Model process" (p. 5).

Acting with integrity, which is one of Shaw's trust imperatives, has a key role in seeing trust through. According to Shaw (1997), integrity has two meanings in relation to organizational trust. First, there is the outer core of integrity, which requires that organizations develop values, and practices, which affirm customers and other stakeholders. Second, there is the inner core of integrity, which requires that organizations and their managers develop a consistent and cohesive approach to business. Therefore, organizational integrity is based on a clear purpose, which means a clear vision, performance targets, and a set of operating principles, confronting reality, which means knowledge about the organization's success and situation, open agenda, which means openness about objectives and motives, and following through on commitments.