Trust management through discourse: Power and persuasion in financial services

Abstract

The globe’s corporate power elites view trust as indispensable to economic growth (Tyler and Stanley, 2007; DeVita, 2007; Korcynski, 2000). They also view the loss of trust as a cost or ‘tax’ to business (Murphy, 2003; Rendtorff, 2008; Khodyakov, 2007). Consequently, corporate elites use their capitalist power to socialise trust (Kincaid, 2006) in order to increase profits. Corporate elites acquire power through specialised knowledge that ordinary consumers find difficult or impossible to fathom. Elites then leverage their knowledge/power by taking on more and more risk on behalf of consumers (Rendtorff, 2008), and packaging that risk in products and services. In response, consumers employ trust as a way to reduce uncertainty and complexity when purchasing those products and services. Hence consumers accept the power of corporate elites and other authorities in global capital systems (Rendtorff, 2008)