Trust has always been an important issue in the relationship between leaders and those with whom they engage. Although hard to define, we all know when trust is absent.
Together with the UK Institute of Leadership, AQR International has been exploring Trust from a number of perspectives to be able to define and operationalise it.
AQR International has taken the Trust framework and has developed a measure – the Occupational Trust Measure (OTM) – which enables users to assess trust in those six dimensions and up to 50 individual components. This granularity in the OTM is useful not only for the diagnosis of need but also helps to identify where action may be best directed.
The OTM is being developed according to standards associated with quality psychometric measures with colleagues from the University of Limerick in Ireland and the University of Hull in the UK. The OTM is designed to be reliable so that it can also measure and monitor changes in all dimensions over time.
We are now at the final pilot stage in the development of the Occupational Trust Measure.
We are looking for organisations or departments/divisions in larger organisations who would be happy to issue this questionnaire. This will be allocated on a “first come, first served basis”.
The process is straightforward and highly automated. Each organisation is provided with an open link which they can issue to their employees. All data is anonymised. No individual responses are identified.
Data is aggregated and analysed and each participating organisation receives a full report on its data together with a feedback discussion with one or more of AQR International’s consultants (this can include academic researchers). The feedback discussion will be provided virtually.
There is no charge for this. Should participating organisations wish to use the measure in subsequent years, they will be able to do so at a 33% discount to the normal price on the first occasion.
The OTM assesses the following factors:
| Global Factor | Specific Factor |
| Objective | Competence |
| Fairness | |
| Engaging | Openness |
| Understanding | |
| Consistent | Dependability |
| Integrity |
The challenge for individual organisations is to understand and assess Trust in their situation and use this to form and implement plans to optimise levels of Trust for the benefit of all.
The purpose of the framework and the measure is to enable leaders to shine a light on this invisible but crucial aspect of an organisation’s culture to create organisations where all can thrive.
To register your interest e-mail headoffice@aqr.co.uk or call 01244 572050.
