The Negative Side of Giving Employees the Trust They Want

Leadership experts often encourage managers to empower their subordinates by delegating important tasks, granting autonomy, and, above all, trusting their team. The logic seems intuitive: when people feel trusted, they perform better and become more engaged.

However, a new study published in the Journal of Business Ethics complicates this idea by showing that aligning trust with employees’ desires can inadvertently promote unethical loyalty in the absence of ethical guidance.