Repairing trust in public sector agencies

Nicole Gillespie and Niamh Daly

Chapter 7 in Handbook on Trust in Public Governance, 2025, pp 98-115 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Trust failures in public administration can have devastating impacts, eroding citizen trust and confidence in public institutions. In this chapter, we take stock of the literature on trust repair to draw insight on how public sector leaders can effectively respond to organisational trust failures and support the restoration of trust. We discuss what it means to repair trust and integrate the key mechanisms and strategies for restoring trust in public sector organisations into a framework of five practices: the initial response, investigation and discovery, making amends, organisational reforms, and transparency. We consider unique features of the public sector context that influence trust repair dynamics and conclude with a future research agenda to advance understanding of organisational trust repair in the sector.

Keywords: Trust repair; Distrust; Public sector; Public services; Review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781802201390
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