Are Your Employees Bowling Alone?: How to Build a Trusting Organization

From 1980 to 1993, the number of bowlers grew by 10%, while league membership shrank by 40%. In his widely read 1994 essay, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," sociologist Robert Putnam used this statistic as a metaphor for civic disengagement. Putnam was writing about civic society, but his observations apply to business as well. The same erosion of social cohesion and trust occurring in society at large operates in the corporate sector--affecting the work environment, productivity, and profits. This article suggest that a company's ability to promote cohesion, community spirit, and mutual accountability depends entirely on its leaders, and reveals the five identifying hallmarks shared by genuinely trusting organizations.