Christopher J. Tennyson

2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Finds Global Erosion

PR Firm Calls on CEOs to Do More “for the Good of Their Companies and Society”            

1/21/21 – – For the last two decades, Edelman public relations has published its annual Trust Barometer. The highly respected survey, conducted by the world’s largest PR firm, measures public trust in institutions and leaders in 28 countries.

Why focus on trust? Without it, communications and leadership are ineffective.

It’s not surprising that the 2021 Trust Barometer offers very little good news. COVID-19, crumbling economies and political pandemonium taxed the credibility of the four major institutions included in the survey: Business, NGOs, Government, and Media. Edelman found “an epidemic of misinformation and widespread mistrust of societal institutions and leaders around the world.”

Business, with a trust rating of 61 percent, holds a stronger position than NGOs (57 percent), Government (53 percent) and Media (51 percent). CEOs do even better then business in general. Given this relative strength, Edelman concludes: “CEOs must act on a broader set of concerns for the good of their companies and society.”

Here’s where the survey findings must be interpreted with care. While almost nine out of 10 respondents agreed that CEOs should publicly speak out on societal challenges, only four “challenges” were offered to respondents for consideration in the relevant survey question. Here’s how they scored:

Pandemic  (59 percent)

Job Automation  (51 percent)

Societal Issues  (43 percent)

Local Community Issues  (40 percent)

In other words, there was not enthusiastic support for CEOs jumping into any one of these topics. And fewer than 50 percent were in favor of CEOs tackling the broad category of “societal issues” — a quagmire of ever-evolving, polarizing challenges for CEOs and companies. There is a healthy reluctance among business leaders to take stands on the 50/50 political issues that animate today’s toxic public discourse. Doing so may earn kudos from like-minded activists and business professors, but will inevitably erode public and employee trust.      

It’s impossible for NGOs, governments and media to stay clear of politics. That’s one reason their trust ratings continue to fall. Businesses still have the opportunity to follow a different path. So, while it’s well worth the time to read the report accompanying the raw data from the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer (linked below), analyze the recommendations with caution.

Trust me.

https://www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer

Published by Christopher J. Tennyson

Christopher Tennyson brings more than 35 years of experience in major agency and corporate environments to his work as a senior communications and crisis management consultant. He has advised a broad range of high-profile companies, institutions and individuals in diverse industries, including real estate, retailing, consumer products, energy, education, art, sports and finance. Tennyson served as senior vice president and senior partner at the international public relations firm FleishmanHillard (FH), heading the New York Corporate and Public Affairs Group. His FH crisis team won the 2008 Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil for best crisis communications program, supporting a major food product recall. Prior to joining FH, Tennyson was a principal in the Michigan-based public relations firm Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson, and served as senior vice president, corporate affairs, for The Taubman Company, whose interests included the international art auction house Sotheby’s (NYSE:BID), the Woodward and Lothrop and John Wanamaker department store chains, A&W Restaurants, the Michigan Panthers of the U.S. Football League and Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO), a leading retail real estate developer and manager. Tennyson began his communications counseling career with the international public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, advancing from copywriter to vice president and director of the agency’s Issues and Corporate Advertising Unit in the New York office. A graduate of Syracuse University, Tennyson has been a visiting lecturer on leadership and crisis communications at the Wharton School and an adjunct professor at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. He is co-author of “Driving Crisis Communications in a 24/7 Digital World,” featured in the PR News Crisis Management Guidebook, Vol. 3. Tennyson also co-authored entrepreneur Alfred Taubman’s New York Times best-selling memoir, “Threshold Resistance – The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer,” published in 2007 by Harper Collins.

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