Repairing Public Trust in Organizations

Abstract

While past research has examined organizational trust with key stakeholders, including employees, little research has examined how organizations can repair trust with the general public. Public trust in an organization is critical to ensuring legitimacy and firm survival. However, the type of violation of public trust can impact the repair strategies firms may choose to enact. This paper examines the construct of public trust, discusses the important aspects of trust violation and develops a framework for organizations to repair trust with the public. We argue that communication and strategic institutional reforms are necessary to repair trust, but are more important following competence, rather than integrity violations.