Is more trust the way to better public welfare?

Trust as a style of management

Top executives in a number of large public institutions will now grapple with trust as a style of management in the public sector. Can more trust increase public-sector efficiency?

The Danish academy for trust management (Akademiet for tillidsbaseret ledelse) is now going to examine whether trust management can create more efficiency in the public sector. They will introduce the topic at a conference on 14 September.

Political debate

The theme is very topical in relation to the political debate on public-sector management. For instance, the Social Democrats want 'partnerships for welfare', which will provide more 'warm hands', the Conservative Party are talking about a 'freedom reform' that will reduce the bureaucracy of the welfare state, and the Social-Liberal Party want a 'trust reform' that will reduce control and evaluation. Managers from the public sector and researchers will take the discussion of removing bureaucracy a step further, and the trust discussion calls for well thought-out suggestions to how modern public governance should be executed.

Trust at the Central Tax Administration

The Danish Central Tax Administration has already tried trust management in practice.

- For us, trust is not just about ensuring job satisfaction. Trust is very much as question of reorganising the entire strategy. By trusting our citizens and the competences of our employees, we can obtain a level of quality and efficiency that we couldn't have obtained by cutting costs, says Production Director Steffen Normann Hansen.

Associate Professor Niels Thygesen from Copenhagen Business School and Director Nina Petersen from the consultancy company NextPuzzle have taken the initiative to establish the academy.

- Trust management is not a new fancy concept. We are not saying that we have the solution, but we know the challenges. It would be easy to complain about the conditions, but we want to find an applicable balance between trust and governance in the public sector by means of trust management. says Niels Thygesen.

The speakers

Alfred Josefsen, Managing Director of the Danish supermarket Irma, Preben Melander, Professor and Director of the Center for for Business Development and Management (CVL), Copenhagen Business School, and Author and controversialist Tor Nørretranders will be speaking at the conference. The conference also includes workshops with cases from the Central Tax Administration, the City of Copenhagen and the City of Hvidovre.

Visit www.tillidsakademiet.dk to learn more about the academy and see a detailed conference agenda.

The press is welcome to join the conference 'Trust management - a new resource for public organisations?', which will take place on Tuesday 14 September from 9:00-16:00 at Copenhagen Business School, Dalgas Have 15, 2000 Frederiksberg.

Contact these persons if you want to sign up:

Niels Thyge Thygesen, ntt.lpf@cbs.dk, 2624 0544

Nina Petersen, np@nextpuzzle.com, 2830 3976

Participants

The National Commision of the Danish Police, the Central Tax Administration, the Ministry of the Environment, the Science Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Danish Agency for Governmental Management, the Danish Working Environment Authority, Radio Denmark, the Copenhagen School of Design and Technology, then City of Frederiksberg and the City of Hvidovre.