ACADEMIA Letters

Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and

the Development of an Exemplary Organization
Joseph Tunji, Columbia International University

The influence of trust on organizations, leaders, and followers is an essential factor for effec-
tive leadership, followership, and the development of an exemplary organization examined
in this study. Trust is a crucial component of collaboration in achieving leadership effec-
tiveness and credibility. Trust is the foundation for organizations to be valuable and exem-
plary. In the twenty-first century, trust is one of the factors that organizations and govern-
ments must deal with. First, this paper explored who a successful leader is? Understand-
ing that a person experienced at trust-building should have the following skills: sociability,
interpersonal-relationship, active listening, practical communication, team-playing, and col-
laboration. Next, who is a dependable leader? Being reliable or trustworthy leaders means
that the followers could trust and rely on them to follow through on their plans and keep
promises (Shapiro, 2014). This study explored how influential leaders help build empathy
and know-how to create a climate of trust. Leadership factors are considered on the leader’s
goals that will make a credible and effective organization through the process that exemplifies
the performance and plans of the organization. Also, this paper examined how steward leaders
help create trust with their followers. Finally, the study reflected on an example of a credible
leader, Bernard Tyson of Kaiser Permanente. Lastly, the study considered the importance of
credibility as the foundation for effective leadership by exploring Kouzes and Posner’s argu-
ments that most people are willing to follow a trustworthy, honest, competent, inspiring, and
visionary leader.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

1
Introduction and Overview of Organizational Trust
Trust comes from credible leaders who collaborate with the workforce in organizational lead-
ership. Kouzes and Posner (2017) declared that if a leader is trustworthy, the followers will
collaborate with him by allowing the leader to lead them. Leadership requires building trust,
maintaining solid credibility, and having a collaborative team of individuals working toward
the same goal (Avolio et al., 1998; Bass et al., 1999). According to Kouzes and Posner (2017),
trust-building requires additional leadership strengths like practical communication skills and
conflict resolution competency. Trust building in an organization can become one of the es-
sential skills for leadership succession planning strategy. It allows communication of tasks,
responsibilities, and goals to be more effective. Understanding each other allows for collabo-
ration, which benefits assessing strengths, delegating tasks, and seamlessly completing goals.
A dependable leader is someone that the followers can rely on and trust, an individual who
follows through on his words, plans, keeps promises, and is trustworthy (Avolio et al., 1998;
Beyers, 2006; Shapiro, 2014; Yerokun, 2017).
In literature, trust has many definitions. Mayer et al. (1995) defined trust as “the willing-
ness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that
the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to
monitor or control that other party” (p. 712). Das and Tang (1998) stated that trust is “the de-
gree to which the trustor holds a positive attitude toward the trustee’s goodwill and reliability
in a risky exchange situation” (p. 494). Rousseau (1998) referred to trust as “a psychological
state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the
intentions or behavior of another” (p. 395). The strong relationships built by a dependable
leader create a resilient team that can work through difficulties that may arise. A trustwor-
thy professional meets the deadlines, is straightforward, and comes through on obligations.
But, whenever they cannot complete a promise or a goal, they communicate it early on and
have a backup plan. Kouzes and Posner (2017) stated by their research that credibility is the
single most indispensable leadership characteristic, and every leader must be credible to be
trustworthy. When leaders lack credibility, they can’t lead the people effectively. Credibility
brings trust, and trust enhances collaboration. Yukl (2008) defined organizational effective-
ness as the extent to which an organization can survive in performing its mission, maintaining
earnings, financial resources, and asset value.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

2
Creating a Climate of Trust
Kouzes and Posner (2017) acknowledged that trust in human relationships is the primary issue.
Influential leaders build empathy and understanding, creating a climate of trust. Credibility
is the foundation of leadership, which has trust. Gordon (2018) admitted that the signs that
there is trust in a work environment are when the employees have the resources, authority,
and support to perform their job correctly. Roles and responsibilities are to be delegated, with
the power to complete the task. Trust is the primary operating practice for free information
sharing, and people in the workplace can take the initiative needed to meet goals. Kouzes and
Posner (2017) agreed that collaboration is the critical component to achieving and sustain-
ing high performance, and trust is at the heart of collaboration. Wilson (2016)recognized
that leadership is essential and not less, especially when collaboration is required. The more
trusted the followers feel, the better they can innovate. Leaders that are bossy and hold tight to
the reins of power always find themselves having followers who always withhold and distort
information. According to Malphurs (2003), having personal credibility is trustworthy, com-
passionate, and honest. If leaders have personal credibility, followers tend to believe them
when leading, and they can trust them with their family or friends.
When leaders are trustworthy, the followers have confidence in their pure motives and
know that they are filled with integrity and ready for collaboration. Kouzes and Posner (2017)
indicated that people hold and sustain personal credibility by having integrity, telling the truth,
a person’s character, and being who they say they are. A credible person brings her life to
alignment with what she says. Personal credibility is of the essence, while professional cred-
ibility is the ability to deliver on expectations, goals and execute responsibilities the person
has given. Personal and professional credibility is vital for leaders (Avolio et al., 1998, 2005).
Lencioni (2002) recognized that five dysfunctions take the form of a triangle that resembles
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Lencioni thinks that one cannot resolve the issues of higher-level
needs without first attending to the lower-level needs. A team’s five dysfunctions are lack of
trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to
results.
Nevertheless, this study considers the first dysfunction: the lack of trust. Lack of trust is
about fear of being vulnerable: protecting one’s sense of invulnerability, not letting the team
develop, engaging in negative work conflict, and reaching complex outcomes. For example,
suppose a team lacks trust; in that case, the team will experience the following concealing
weaknesses and mistakes from each other. For example, they may not ask for help or a piece of
advice, are reluctant to offer support if it is outside their area of responsibility, are unwilling to
provide feedback or praise one’s skills, and dislike meetings and avoid spending time together.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

3
Example of a Trustworthy Leader
An example of a contemporary leader that led by trust and got to the top of his career was
Bernard Tyson, former Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Hos-
pitals. In his Memoriam, the author writes that Bernard James Tyson was born January 20,
1959, in Vallejo, California, to Billie Jean Tyson, a homemaker, and Moses Tyson, a minister.
After graduating from Vallejo High School in 1977, Bernard enrolled at Golden Gate Uni-
versity in San Francisco. His passion for health care began in college when Bernard worked
as an administrative analyst for Vallejo General Hospital. He earned a bachelor’s degree in
health services management and a Master of Business Administration in health services ad-
ministration from Golden Gate University. He later earned an advanced leadership certificate
from Harvard University.
Tyson’s career at Kaiser Permanente spanned more than three decades, winning the trust
of the leadership and employees at KP. After a 6-month internship, he was hired into a full-
time administrative position. Over the next 30 years, he successfully managed all significant
aspects of the organization. Being trustworthy, Bernard served in numerous leadership roles
from hospital administrator to division president. In 2013, Bernard became chief executive
officer, and in 2014 he was named Chairman of the board of directors. His influence was felt
both nationally and internationally. Time named Bernard, Fast Company, Modern Healthcare,
and so many others as one of the most influential people in health care. Bernard served on the
boards of directors for the American Heart Association and Salesforce. In addition, he was
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, served as deputy chairman of the
Americas of the International Federation of Health Plans, was the former chair of America’s
Health Insurance Plans, and a steward of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council
on Health and Healthcare. He was also a member of The Business Council and the Bay Area
Council chair.

Fostering Collaboration
Collaboration enables cooperation, workplaces, and community support to function effec-
tively. Exemplary leaders believe that one cannot do it alone, and one cannot make extraor-
dinary things happen by oneself, but by collaboration (Avolio & Gardner 2005; Kouzes &
Posner 2017). Exemplary leadership is one with credibility because the leaders are honest.
Kouzes and Posner (2017) recognized that people would be willing to follow a person worthy
of their trust because they are truthful, ethical, and moral. The lifeblood of collaboration is
trust. Since diversity exists in the workplace, there must be a collaboration between the lead-

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

4
ers and followers to create and sustain relationships: you trust others, others trust you, and you
must trust each other. Kouzes and Posner (2017) admitted that one could not lead or make
extraordinary things happen in organizations without trust.
People want their leaders to be honest, and if the leaders are genuine, it reflects hon-
esty upon the entire team they lead. Honesty is strongly tied to values and ethics (Northouse,
2016;Rousseau et al.,1998).Shapiro (2014) emphasized that a precious resource in team build-
ing is honest people because, in an effective executive team, all the members work together to
achieve the goals. Brown and Trevino (2006) stated that ethical leadership covers two aspects:
the ‘moral person and the moral manager. The honest person aspect relates to a leader’s moral
characteristics and the traits like honesty and altruism. These show in his personal and pro-
fessional life. The moral manager aspect refers to the leader’s intentional efforts to influence
and manage follower ethical behaviors, communicating ethical standards, and disciplining
employees for unethical behavior. Kouzes and Posner (2017) stated that cooperative behavior
demands individuals to realize that they will accomplish something that no one can achieve
alone by working together.
To better understand organizational trust, one should appreciate the most recent construct
of leadership called steward leadership. According to Rodin (2010), Steward leadership is a
new construct of leadership that focuses on service and mission for the organization and com-
munity. The mission of steward leaders is to meet owners’ goals, followers’ demands, know
the followers and community needs, and get the requirements to them in the most effective
way. It is possible only if the followers and community trust the leader. Wilson (2016) sees
a steward as one who oversees another’s property and resources with the motive of achieving
the owner’s goals. The most important thing with a steward leader is accomplishing the mis-
sion by achieving the owner’s aims. Steward leadership is different from the other leadership
models in that followers look on the leader as a steward and servant, without self-interest but
rather with interest in the organization’s mission. Block (1996) acknowledged that steward-
ship develops from beliefs regarding the reforming of organizations and encourages the choice
for service over the quest for self-interest.

Conclusion
This paper investigated how genuine leaders by the trust can develop extraordinary organiza-
tions with credibility and confidence. Lencioni (2002) acknowledged that great teams are not
born but made. Therefore, it is up to a leader to recognize what dysfunctions could prevent
their team from pursuing and achieving expected results. Still, the leader must tackle the issue
with a clear decision. Consequently, if a team focuses on typical results, the team must have

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

5
clear metrics to measure outcomes. But if a team already knows how to support each other
and are accountable, they must push each other to pursue common but not individual goals.
Kouzes and Posner (2017) recognized that good leaders are skilled at solving problems
that may develop on the job. Practical problem solving requires staying calm and identifying a
step to find the solution. When leaders understand the importance of trust, they will know how
to resolve follower problems and on-the-job difficulties. Trust helps leaders make sound de-
cisions, solve problems with their team and others, and ensure missions are timely completed
and according to the needs. Malphurs (2003) stated that a dependable leader is someone that
the followers can rely upon and trust as being trustworthy. The stronger the relationship built
with a responsible leader, the greater the ability to create a resilient team that would work
through difficulties.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

6
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Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.

7
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Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joseph Tunji, deletunji@msn.com

Citation: Tunji, J. (2022). Trust: An Essential Factor for Effective Leadership and the Development of an
Exemplary Organization. Academia Letters, Article 4718. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4718.