One of the most exciting things about working at Edelman is the company’s perpetual pursuit for insight and understanding. This passion for perspective is in part manifested through the annual release of the Edelman Trust Barometer.
Among the many compelling findings of this year’s report, those pertaining to Germany naturally caught my attention, since I’ve been living here on a fellowship. I was intrigued to learn that overall, trust has fallen in Germany from 57 percent in 2014 to 50 percent. Additionally, trust in the media has fallen to 45 percent from 54 percent, and trust in business decreased from 57 percent to 45 percent. These are not tiny changes. To gain understanding of the causes of the evaporation of trust, I asked several colleagues their opinions. Here are few responses:
On decreasing trust in business:
- German companies have made many decisions without input from German citizens. As a society, we have evolved and want greater participation in business decisions that impact our lives. We accepted many decisions in the past that we no longer accept because we see that they were wrong or had uncomfortable consequences. Trust is the result of a process, so for many Germans, we will wait for the process to unfold before trust is restored.
- Germans like to be on the safe side. We were probably in deep shock after we realized what a few people in leading positions could do to our economy and we are still highly insecure in this regard.
- After the financial crisis, people became more aware of the high salaries and bonuses managers in all industries earn. Additionally many people lost their jobs or had to work more for the same salary. These realities didn’t encourage trust.
On decreasing trust in media:
- Unfortunately, many Germans do not trust what they read or hear in today’s media coverage. This becomes particularly apparent when looking at the open and harsh criticism of the media reports about the Ukrainian crisis. Many Germans criticized that coverage as one-sided. Many believe the media reported purely through the lens of the Western world, instead of shedding light on all aspects of this crisis.
- People, especially younger Germans, are increasingly interested in finding the true story. Due to the proliferation of digital channels, people hear many versions of a story. The different versions make people more suspicious and cautious to believe what is presented.
While a decrease in trust is always concerning, the perspectives from my German colleagues also reveal areas of opportunity for trust building. Germans want to be engaged with the businesses they use and need assurance that decisions are being made with society in mind. This is a beautiful society in which many neighbors truly feel a responsibility for each other; this responsibility must be felt in business engagement as well. Additionally, media must find ways to tell a fuller, more transparent story, and hold businesses and leaders accountable in a productive way. The process of trust building must start with transparency, responsibility, integrity and engagement.
I’sys Caffey is a senior account supervisor with expertise in corporate communications and stakeholder engagement. She is a 2014 Daniel J. Edelman Global Fellow working in Frankfurt, Germany, from Atlanta, GA.