Communication training in LucerneAfter a mistake: is an apology enough to restore trust?
After failing to honour a commitment, a manager may be tempted to find the right words and move on. Yet repairing trust requires distinguishing what words acknowledge from what actions still need to demonstrate.
1. What the literature establishes: the nature of the doubt matters
Peter H. Kim, Donald L. Ferrin, Cecily D. Cooper and Kurt T. Dirks (2004, Journal of Applied Psychology) compared the effects of apology and denial in response to allegations concerning competence or integrity. In their experimental settings, apologies repaired trust more effectively than denials when competence was at issue, whereas the pattern reversed when integrity was questioned. The same response therefore has different effects depending on how the failure is interpreted.
2. A mechanism: words cannot replace evidence
Maurice E. Schweitzer, John C. Hershey and Eric T. Bradlow (2006, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes) studied trust recovery following untrustworthy behaviour, with or without deception. In their experimental setting, a series of trustworthy actions enabled trust to recover, but recovery remained more difficult when deception accompanied the failure. A promise can help initiate repair; it does not, on its own, cancel out the effects of a lie.
3. The hasty conclusion: denial would be better
These findings are not a recommendation to deny established wrongdoing. A false denial risks turning a competence problem into an integrity problem. The useful distinction for managers is instead to acknowledge established facts, separate the error from presumed intentions and specify an observable corrective action. (our executive and employee training programmes)
4. The limits: a working relationship is not a scenario
These studies use experimental situations that isolate particular mechanisms without reproducing the full history of a professional relationship. The severity of the harm, hierarchical relationships and repeated incidents can change how an apology is received. The findings therefore neither guarantee the effectiveness of a particular wording nor establish a universal timetable for restoring trust.
5. A practical check in Lucerne
In the canton of Lucerne, tourism, hospitality, regional financial services and industrial SMEs provide settings where short lines of communication and the family ownership of many businesses can make commitments particularly personal. As hypothetical examples, a hotel booking passed on incorrectly or a missed deadline in an SME could serve as a training case for SHR's “Communication” programme. The exercise is to formulate a response covering the acknowledged fact, its consequence and a corrective action with a named owner and deadline, then check at that deadline whether the action was completed. Tracking commitments fulfilled and recurring incidents provides a concrete check on the repair process, without claiming that this alone measures restored trust. To go further: explore the Communication training in Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Communication in Lucerne
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