Churches? Non-profit, non-government organizations which help people? Institutions of higher education? No, it's...wait for it...
It's business.
This is according to Axios. I don't provide a link to Axios's story because, uncharacteristically, the Axios newsletter which reported this story Monday didn't provide a "Go deeper" link to its website. (It does provide a link to its source, which is a report of the findings of multi-country survey called the Edelman Trust Barometer.) So I'll just present here a few nuggets from the e-newsletter:
- Business is more trusted than non-profits, government or the media
- Among respondents, "My employer" scores 25% more on trust than government or elected officials
- Richard Edelman, the CEO of the survey organization, states, "Business is the sole institution seen as competent and ethical". On ethics, business outpaces government by 30%
- Respondents rated their company newsletter as their most trusted source of information
- "72 percent want business to defend facts and expose questionable science being used to justify bad social policy .... 64 percent want companies to support politicians and media outlets that build consensus and cooperation."
- "Globally, 68% say "brands celebrating what brings us together and emphasizing our common interest would help increase civility and strengthen the social fabric," the report says."
I admit I am not sure what to make of this. A couple of thoughts and guesses:
- It's possible that employees' experience with COVID has influenced these results. It may be that the private sector established itself as a more trustworthy source of COVID information than government, the media or education. And employers may have earned their employees' respect and trust by how well they were able to navigate the pandemic. The media (despite, apparently, its relative lack of trustworthiness) had many stories during the pandemic of employers, especially small business owners, who sacrificed and adapted to stay open on behalf of their employees. It's also noteworthy that the effective vaccines used across the developed world were developed by businesses - in partnership with governments.
- Younger adults, and perhaps people as a whole, have soured on institutions in general. We've mentioned many times here that people, especially younger people, are disaffiliating from organized religion. Separately, Axios has been reporting that younger voters are shedding party affiliations and declaring themselves as independents. Businesses and employers may be the only institutions that many people still feel connected to.
Nevertheless, reading some of these findings makes me feel as though I've entered some bizarre alternate reality. Businesses are the exemplars of ethical behavior? Brands will unite us and strengthen the social fabric? Maybe I've been too close to business for too long, but...I just don't see it.
What comes to mind are the Exxon scientists correctly predicting global warming due to fossil fuel burning and that company spending its money to suppress that truth.
ReplyDeleteI'm from the old school. I remember Jonathan Winters' line from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"': "Why even businessmen who lie and cheat and steal from people every day pay taxes". Of course, that movie was way before the 80's.
Greenleaf, who as an AT&T executive was from the business world, thought that businesses had a greater potential to become better servants than educational and religious institutions.
ReplyDeleteGreenleaf wrote Servant Leadership after he retired from AT&T while lecturing and consulting at institutions of higher education. He was dismayed at their response to the student unrest of the 1960s. Few of them cared about developing leaders. In today’s terms one would say that higher education has very little accountability for what it does.
Greenleaf had a little more hope in religious institutions. This, of course, was at the time of the civil rights movement and the peace movement when churches and clergy were positively involved in society. He encouraged seminaries to consider leadership development as one of their key missions, not only for the church but encouraging leadership throughout society. He still saw churches, however, as having little natural incentive to produce better leadership.
Greenleaf though that business had a natural incentive to provide better products and services. He was aware of deceptive practices but thought that the market would overcome these.
Business has changed since Greenleaf’s time. A lot of money is made in the financial markets rather than by selling real products and services. Business owners and managers used to be connected to their communities; that has largely disappeared with the global market. I am not so sure he would be as optimistic about business today.
Of course, businesses CAN become a benefit to the community and the employees. One example is the Karl Zeiss company. Upon founder Zeiss' death, his shares went to partner and innovative scientist Ernst Abbe. Abbe grew up in poverty and believed companies existed to benefit society. He and other partners eventually donated their shares to a foundation that not only expanded the company and optical research but established medical and other benefits for the employees. This is in contrast to egotists like Andrew Carnegie who plastered his name all over the place and cared not about the welfare of his employees. I don't know much about the company in recent history and whether it maintains that tradition.
ReplyDeleteOther companies that come to mind are Scott-Bader of Britain and Mondragon of Spain which are employee owned.
It depends on which business one is talking about. There are some which are fairly ethical, and some which absolutely are not. I view my former employer favorably (even though I still do occasional work for them, I am actually employed by a temp agency when I do). I would not give ten cents for the ethics of a couple of the businesses my husband used to work for. That would include the one which moved to Nebraska to take advantage of a tax break program the state had going to encourage businesses to locate here. When the break expired they shook the dust off their feet and moved to West Virginia where they could pay their employers less (it's pretty bad when the pay is less than Nebraska.)
ReplyDeleteWhat Jack said, "A lot of money is made in the financial markets rather than by selling real products and services" is certainly true. Particularly corporate raiding and vulture capitalism does a lot of harm to employees and communities.
"employers" I meant employees above.
DeleteWell, I am sceptical about this after reading about this group in Wiki. I didn’t double-check wiki’s source articles but
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelman_(firm)#Controversies
They don’t actually sound like they are an ethical, trustworthy organization.
Edelman has a history of establishing astroturf campaigns (seemingly grassroots groups that are fronts for industry) for its clients.[7][8][9] The company has created front groups and advised clients to plant articles, letters and opinion pieces that appear to be spontaneous testimonials.[7][8][9]
And a whole lot more activity that is questionable.
Anne, thanks. It seems quite possible that Edelman managed to bamboozle Axios (which didn't exactly bamboozle me, I guess, but at least piqued my interest enough to further propagate it here).
DeleteI may have to turn in my conservative card after this comment, but...I see both government and the media as important checks on business. The free market, by itself, is an insufficient check on unethical business practices. The marketplace requires regulations to protect consumers and to protect firms from one another. And it requires media willing to shine light into dark places.
ReplyDeleteTo name one area that people probably don't think nearly enough about: Americans' retirement savings are massively dependent on well-regulated financial markets. My 401k savings are invested in stock funds and similar financial instruments. The same is true of pension funds: they serve their individual members by investing the funds. If the SEC and other government watchdog agencies didn't aggressively manage the financial marketplace, many of us would be facing a much poorer senior time of life.
This isn't just theoretical. I recently read a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. He was present in the earliest days of the New York Stock Exchange, and was among the first generation of tycoons who cleaned up by trading the stocks of the company he owned. He was a tough SOB but compared to his fellow investors he was a paragon of virtue. Many of these first investors would short-sell the stock in their own companies, thus victimizing all the stakeholders that directors are supposed to take care of: employees, customers, investors, suppliers and the local communities that depended on these businesses. Investors could grow richer by ruining companies than by growing them, so that is what they did.
I actually thought all three sectors - business, government and the media - did pretty well with COVID.
Well some of the media did.
DeleteI actually didn't think our state government did too badly, even though I'm not a Pete Ricketts fan.
Unrelated, (or maybe it is), guess who our newly inaugurated governor appointed to fill out Ben Sasse's term when he bailed out to go down to Florida. None other than Pistol Pete. Or is it Panderin' Pete? Anyway I'm sure he will have a good time in DC. Cause we need more rich guys with inherited money there.
And regarding things financial, it appears that we are (again) having one of those "f*** around and find out" moments regarding the debt limit.
DeleteJust lurking mostly because I don't play nice with others anymore, but I think most people would be skeptical the results of this "research," though it seems to be getting a lot of play here and elsewhere, including the WSJ. A few random thoughts:
ReplyDeleteI believe that the study asks people if they trust THEIR employer more than their political, religious, or philanthropical leaders. I'm not sure that trusting the company you work for really counts as wholesale trust in business, which is everything from Consumers Energy to your barber.
And "trust" is kind of loaded. I trust that the Kroger, Rite Aid, and the gas station that get most of my money every month are providing safe products. I don't trust that they are paying their workers fairly or that their prices are fair. And I think they'd be happy to add sawdust to their bread flour, to sell me turmeric as a cancer treatment, and to water their gas if the government wasn't on their backs.
The marketing and advert profs I worked tangentially with at Michigan State University talked endlessly about "brand loyalty beyond reason" as the Holy Grail of commerce. It's an old Madison Avenue idea that if you can persuade people that they can seem cool (responsible, sophisticated, hip, young, smart, insert any adjective here) by being seen with your product, you have them for life. Apple, Starbucks, Volkswagen, the Grateful Dead, and Tiffany's all built that kind of loyalty beyond reason at various times.
Is it really surprising that, in a culture that is almost viciously consumer-oriented, people expect brands to provide comfort, meaning, and social rewards? No. In fact, churches, political affiliation, and philanthropies are trusted only to the extent that they can function as brands, and that's why they are constantly jockeying their "messages" around to appeal to people the same way marketers do.
Back to lurk.
Good to see you, Jean. Hope you had nice holidays.
DeleteJean, you are not alone in your lurking.
DeleteI recently heard by e-mail from Gene Palumbo who occasionally commented here. He noticed that I had typed Whispers in the Logo instead of Whispers in the Loggia. I suspect that might have been the automatic fill that now occurs on our blogger posts. I had not noticed the error.
I was over-joyed to know that he still reads us. He replied that he had been away for a while from the blog, wanted to get back, and finally had made it. I encouraged him to comment from time to time just to let us know that he is out there.
Jean, I miss your comments as always. We all have different takes on things as well all do, so I often wonder about yours.
Sometimes I read portions of this blog to Betty. She has some vision problems, so she likes me to read things to her. That works out fine. I might write differently if I thought Betty was looking over my shoulder. Betty likes to write long hand rather than at a keyboard.
We are all happy to see you here again and know that you are ok. I miss your comments.
DeleteAlways good to hear from Jean. I needed a fix.
DeleteJean, so glad you are still here. I have missed you!
Delete