HPC - individual assisgnment no. 1 - To Trust or to distrust

1a. Describe an instance where you got burned because you chose to trust someone or something.

Years ago I was working in a Japanese bank prior to my current job.  By that time the economy of Japan was declining so many Japanese banks were downsizing and even closed down.  Even though nothing happened to our bank yet, people started looking for other jobs, so do I.  Luckily I was being offered by another foreign bank with higher post and better pay. Upon submitting my resignation, my manager convinced me not to leave the bank.  In return he will counter-offer me the same as what the other bank is given in the next appraisal which would be about eight months later.  I decided to stay and turned down the offer.  However, few months later my bank announced that it is going to be downsized and all pay raise and promotion will be frozen till further notice.  Of course some people were being laid off.  Those who stay had no choice but to take up the extra workload and the promise to me certainly did not come true.  Months later I found my current job but the package was far worse than the previous offer.

2. Explain the decision making process of the instance where you decided to trust or distrust.

In the above instance I decided to trust my manager to stay with the bank and turned a better offer.  According to the article – The Decision to Trust by Robert F. Hurley (Hurley, 2006)[1] I would analyze the instance by the ‘decision-maker factors’.  First of all, by that time I was young and single with no family burden at all I was therefore high in risk tolerance and high level of adjustment.  I didn’t really go through a detail thinking nor seeking second opinion before trusting my manager.  I thought nothing bad could happen to me even though the promise as nothing in this world is absolutely guaranteed.  But if it came true I was doing a favor to my manager in exchange for a brighter future.  I was sort of gambling and my bet isn’t much.  I was confident in myself because the offer and counter-offer is the signal of recognition of my ability in my mind.  I was only a junior staff by that time.  I was a quick learner and a hard working person.  I was willing to take up extra work for my supervisors so people like me a lot.  Even though I did not have actual power in the department people still listen to me and valued my idea positively.  I was being respected.  If I quite it would be your lost, not mine so it was unlikely that he will cheat me on this.  About the situational factors, I would say that we had a lot in common (similarity).  We were both hard working people, willing to stay late and wouldn’t avoid responsibility.  I finished nicely every task he assigned to me.  We both like playing badminton and we always play together.  He was like a big brother to me.  Open communication, he was willing to share management’s information with us all the time such as the personnel movement that were going to happen.  No doubt that he was a kind and concerning leader of the team.  He knew about banking industry inside out and was able to answer every single question I asked.  Our interest seemed to be correlated as my stay would have benefit to the department so as the performance of my manager.  So there is no way that I should distrust my manager’s intention. 

3. Explain what you had learned from the instance and describe how you had changed your behaviors toward others or self after the instance.  Evaluate the relative merits of your behavior adjustment.

First by looking backward I must say that I was angry at my manager for a while about the failed promise.  Then I realized that it wasn’t really his fault.  The root cause was actually the uncontrollable external factors – the Japanese economic downturn.  But still, I later realized that the manager was not being absolutely honest to me at that time.  His experience should have told him that such downsizing will definitely happen in our bank in the near future but still he made that verbal promise to me.  Perhaps he had already noticed this in the management meeting.  Maybe he was too afraid of massive employee turnover in his team that will immediately damage his reputation and the department as a whole.  Well, I would say I learnt a lesson that even though trust is built under common interest, self-interest can change a trustee to a cheater.  Obviously when making a decision at work, one’s career path will be weighted first.  Nothing to be complained about but this must be taken into consideration before trusting someone.  Especially for long term trust, do regularly re-evaluate the elements/factors of trust to avoid high risk trust.  Secondly I ignored the security factor at that time.  Every Japanese bank was downsizing and why could we be the one that was not affected.  The security factor was in fact very low.  I was too confident that blinded my mind.  The situational factors greatly affect the outcome.  Chance just won’t come back again because external factors are changing rapidly.  I should there take into account that not everything is controllable by the trustee.  The predictability and integrity could EASILY be altered by situational factors.  Regardless how high the 1^st three decision-maker factors are, the rest of the seven situational factors influence the final outcome very much.  It is unavoidable to place trust on other people in this world.  Blindly trust will always hurt.  For trust associated with great risk, do your homework to minimize the chance of disappointment.  After all, building trust requires a lot of evaluation and it is very much influenced by the situational factors.  Tips for other people?  Analyze by the 10 factors regularly, seek second opinion and always have a ‘business contingency plan’ ready in case things go wrong.

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[1] Robert F. Hurley (2006). The Decision to Trust, 55-60