Does control erode trust?
Today’s guest, Tina Øllgaard Bentzen, a researcher at Roskilde University in Denmark, explores the nuanced relationship between trust and control. Specializing in trust-based management, Tina challenges the assumption that control erodes trust. Instead, she explains how thoughtfully designed control systems can coexist with trust, fostering innovation, collaboration, and accountability. Drawing on Scandinavian public organizations, Tina highlights how trust-based management shifts the focus from rigid oversight to empowering employees through autonomy and intrinsic motivation.
Tina describes trust as a “magic concept”—a powerful yet abstract idea driving organizational change. By using trust as a framework to critically evaluate and reshape control systems, organizations across Denmark and Scandinavia have developed approaches that enhance trust rather than erode it. For instance, Danish municipalities have replaced rigid purchaser-provider models with collaborative frameworks that engage employees and improve outcomes.
A central theme of the conversation is whether granting more autonomy weakens control or strengthens trust. Tina argues that autonomy, when paired with accountability and co-created control systems, can reinforce trust. However, she acknowledges the challenges, particularly for employees unaccustomed to navigating greater freedom. Leaders must actively address trust breaches and provide support to create an environment where trust and control complement one another.
Looking to the future, Tina discusses how global challenges like fiscal pressures and workforce retention are shaping trust-based reforms. She highlights examples from the COVID-19 crisis, where granting trust during uncertainty spurred innovative solutions, such as Denmark’s outdoor teaching and online schooling.
Is reducing control necessary for strengthening trust?
when I first started researching trust based forms of governance, that was probably the biggest revelation for me that strengthening trust is not necessarily about reducing control. And I mean, I think it makes sense when you look at Scandinavia, which is such a high trust corner of the world, but also a really highly regulated society with lots of control that ensures stability and accountability. So I think in my studies of public organizations actively trying to build trust with employees, it’s been most intriguing to see how they deal with problems of control. And I think we intuitively expect trust based leadership to be about removing control.
Trust based Management
it’s true that trust based management is often seen as a counter movement to new public management, and that is because it advocates strong trust relations as a basis of delegating autonomy to employees. So it’s rather about building trust than implementing very detailed control measures and high power distances in organizations. I think public management also assumes that public employees are predominantly motivated by extrinsic rewards and tend to be self-serving. But when we talk about trust based management, it very much assumes that public employees are at least to a large extent, very driven by intrinsic and prosocial motives.
Trust Reforms in Scandinavia
I like to think that the trust reforms are also a sign that the Nordic countries are trying to protect the trust that they feel is a core value in their lives. So part of the trust reforms are so-called governance experiments, in which organizations are set free of previous regulations. In Denmark, we’ve had several rounds of such liberation experiments, which have also been elevated quite ambitiously. Generally speaking, the evaluations show that such liberations either lead to the same or more positive results, so it appears that it does not create worse results at least. Positive outcomes are both higher employee engagement, and we also see a lot of examples of better services for citizens and reduced administrative burdens