About this IRC® + IRC4HR® Project
Disagreements over contentious social issues can break the trust that exists among staff and between staff and leaders, and is difficult to repair. Internal relationships can also affect how customers, clients, and the public perceive the trustworthiness of organizations and their messages. Given this, trusting relationships are critical for resolving conflict within organizations and organizational teams.
Because they are called upon to address social issues, museums provide a microcosm for studying trust in the organization. Modern museums are tackling issues such as unionization, climate change, racism, restitution of cultural artifacts, and sources of donor wealth. For organizations that have traditionally thought of themselves as neutral ground in their community, this is a challenge – one that recalls the social revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s in the US, which led to a redefinition of museums from collecting to educational organizations.
This project seeks to identify ways nonprofit leaders, especially those working in museums, can support and build trust even when working through contentious issues. Through a literature review, a discourse analysis of news stories, and qualitative interviews with museum professionals, the study will address the following question: What are the interactions around contentious issues that facilitate, sustain, or detract from trust between museum leaders and museum staff?
To address this question, we’re drawing on two theoretical frameworks:
- Experiential Trust, which can be used to measure how trust between individuals changes over time.
- Complex Adaptive Systems, which provides a framework for understanding how individual interactions affect trust within organizations.
Over a period of two years, we’ll be working with our partners at the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) and the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) to develop strategies for building, maintaining, and repairing trust between museum leaders and staff when contentious issues enter the workplace. Through a literature review, an analysis of news stories, and interviews with museum professionals, we’ll generate practical, actionable insights that directly apply to museum professionals’ experiences and contexts — and that also contribute to broader discussions about management and trust in nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
Findings from the study will support the development of strategies for building, supporting, and repairing trust between nonprofit leaders and staff when contentious issues arise, with broader application expected for-profit organizations, as well.
For more information, read the related blog post.
Researchers
Christine Reich, PhD
Christine Reich is a social science researcher and former museum executive who has moved between research and practice throughout her career. As Knology’s CEO and Senior Research Officer, she directs its research agenda and transdisciplinary team of researchers. She has authored over 30 articles related to museum learning, including multiple studies on organizational change in museums. Dr. Reich is also a lecturer on formative evaluation and on interactive learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and President-elect of the Visitor Studies Association.
John Voiklis, PhD
John Voiklis is a cognitive and social psychologist and Principal Researcher at Knology. His expertise includes the role of trust and social-moral motives in learning and decision-making. Dr. Voiklis has worked with the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) since 2017, including redesigning the ACM member survey, providing guidance to museum leadership on data literacy and trends in the children’s museum field, and studying how children’s museums can use virtual programming to maintain, repair, and amplify the trustworthiness families attribute to them. Additionally, he has designed and validated methods for assessing the reach and credibility of zoos and aquariums as conservation.
Shaun Field, MA
Shaun Field has managed Knology’s Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) project portfolio since 2019. He is currently supporting the redesign of the ACM’s data collection tools, reporting methods, and helped develop the ACM Trends Data Hub featured on ACM’s website. Shaun has expertise coordinating large numbers of stakeholders and participants in focus groups and program level data collection, including managing 125 zoos and aquariums working to aggregate impact data across the USA.
IRC® + IRC4HR® Project Publications and Learning Materials
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IRC® + IRC4HR® Upcoming Webinars and Studies
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