IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v122y2014i2p321-341.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Informed Citizens More Trusting? Transparency of Performance Data and Trust Towards a British Police Force

Author

Listed:
  • David Mason
  • Carola Hillenbrand
  • Kevin Money

Abstract

In Britain, substantial cuts in police budgets alongside controversial handling of incidents such as politically sensitive enquiries, public disorder and relations with the media have recently triggered much debate about public knowledge and trust in the police. To date, however, little academic research has investigated how knowledge of police performance impacts citizens’ trust. We address this long-standing lacuna by exploring citizens’ trust before and after exposure to real performance data in the context of a British police force. The results reveal that being informed of performance data affects citizens’ trust significantly. Furthermore, direction and degree of change in trust are related to variations across the different elements of the reported performance criteria. Interestingly, the volatility of citizens’ trust is related to initial performance perceptions (such that citizens with low initial perceptions of police performance react more significantly to evidence of both good and bad performance than citizens with high initial perceptions), and citizens’ intentions to support the police do not always correlate with their cognitive and affective trust towards the police. In discussing our findings, we explore the implications of how being transparent with performance data can both hinder and be helpful in developing citizens’ trust towards a public organisation such as the police. From our study, we pose a number of ethical challenges that practitioners face when deciding what data to highlight, to whom, and for what purpose. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • David Mason & Carola Hillenbrand & Kevin Money, 2014. "Are Informed Citizens More Trusting? Transparency of Performance Data and Trust Towards a British Police Force," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 321-341, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:122:y:2014:i:2:p:321-341
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1702-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-013-1702-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-013-1702-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    2. Michael Palanski & Surinder Kahai & Francis Yammarino, 2011. "Team Virtues and Performance: An Examination of Transparency, Behavioral Integrity, and Trust," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 201-216, March.
    3. Clinton Free & Vaughan Radcliffe, 2009. "Accountability in Crisis: The Sponsorship Scandal and the Office of the Comptroller General in Canada," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(2), pages 189-208, January.
    4. Karan Sonpar & Jay Handelman & Ali Dastmalchian, 2009. "Implementing New Institutional Logics in Pioneering Organizations: The Burden of Justifying Ethical Appropriateness and rustworthiness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 345-359, December.
    5. S. Prakash Sethi & Emre A. Veral & H. Jack Shapiro & Olga Emelianova, 2011. "Mattel, Inc., Global Manufacturing Principles (GMP): A Life-Cycle Analysis of a Company’s Voluntary Code of Conduct," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: S. Prakash Sethi (ed.), Globalization and Self-Regulation, chapter 2, pages 17-67, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. John Seddon & Carlton Brand, 2008. "Debate: Systems Thinking and Public Sector Performance," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 7-9, February.
    7. Bill McEvily & Vincenzo Perrone & Akbar Zaheer, 2003. "Trust as an Organizing Principle," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 91-103, February.
    8. Colin Talbot, 2000. "Performing ‘Performance’—A Comedy in Five Acts," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 63-68, October.
    9. Maria Halter & Maria Arruda & Ralph Halter, 2009. "Transparency to Reduce Corruption?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 373-385, February.
    10. Mervyn Stone, 2002. "Core Articles: Can Public Service Efficiency Measurement be a Useful Tool of Government? The Lesson of the Spottiswoode Report," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 33-40, July.
    11. Leigh M. Drake & Richard Simper, 2005. "The Measurement Of Police Force Efficiency: An Assessment Of U.K. Home Office Policy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(4), pages 465-482, October.
    12. Wesley David Sine & Scott Shane & Dante Di Gregorio, 2003. "The Halo Effect and Technology Licensing: The Influence of Institutional Prestige on the Licensing of University Inventions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 478-496, April.
    13. Hoje Jo & Yongtae Kim, 2008. "Ethics and Disclosure: A Study of the Financial Performance of Firms in the Seasoned Equity Offerings Market," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(4), pages 855-878, July.
    14. Leigh M. Drake & Richard Simper, 2004. "The economics of managerialism and the drive for efficiency in policing," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 509-523.
    15. S. Sethi & Emre Veral & H. Shapiro & Olga Emelianova, 2011. "Mattel, Inc.: Global Manufacturing Principles (GMP) – A Life-Cycle Analysis of a Company-Based Code of Conduct in the Toy Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(4), pages 483-517, April.
    16. Paul M. Collier, 2006. "In Search of Purpose and Priorities: Police Performance Indicators in England and Wales," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 165-172, June.
    17. Becker-Olsen, Karen L. & Cudmore, B. Andrew & Hill, Ronald Paul, 2006. "The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 46-53, January.
    18. Paul M. Collier, 2001. "Police Performance Measurement and Human Rights," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 35-39, June.
    19. Peter M. Jackson, 2011. "Governance by numbers: what have we learned over the past 30 years?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 13-26, January.
    20. Peter Smith, 1990. "The Use of Performance Indicators in the Public Sector," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 153(1), pages 53-72, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cooper, Christine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2021. "Hillsborough: The fight for accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. James Gerard Caillier, 2020. "Bureaucratic Bashing and Praising: What Effect Does it Have on the Performance Citizens Assign Agencies?," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 685-701, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maira Babri & Bruce Davidson & Sven Helin, 2021. "An Updated Inquiry into the Study of Corporate Codes of Ethics: 2005–2016," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 71-108, January.
    2. Christina Niforou, 2015. "Labour Leverage in Global Value Chains: The Role of Interdependencies and Multi-level Dynamics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 301-311, August.
    3. Marta Pizzetti & Lucia Gatti & Peter Seele, 2021. "Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 21-38, April.
    4. Andreea Ioana COSTE & Adriana TIRON-TUDOR, 2015. "Performance Indicators In Romanian Higher Education," SEA - Practical Application of Science, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 7, pages 177-180, April.
    5. Albats, Ekaterina & Alexander, Allen T. & Cunningham, James A., 2022. "Traditional, virtual, and digital intermediaries in university-industry collaboration: exploring institutional logics and bounded rationality," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    6. Surender Kumar & Sudesh Kumar, 2015. "Does modernization improve performance: evidence from Indian police," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 57-77, February.
    7. Dong Hoang, 2019. "Labour Standards in the Global Supply Chain: Workers’ Agency and Reciprocal Exchange Perspective," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-25, May.
    8. Rogge, Nicky & Simper, Richard & Verschelde, Marijn & Hall, Maximilian, 2015. "An analysis of managerialism and performance in English and Welsh male prisons," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 224-235.
    9. Verschelde, Marijn & Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "An environment-adjusted evaluation of citizen satisfaction with local police effectiveness: Evidence from a conditional Data Envelopment Analysis approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 214-225.
    10. Peter Seele & Irina Lock, 2015. "Instrumental and/or Deliberative? A Typology of CSR Communication Tools," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 401-414, October.
    11. Rachel N. Birkey & Ronald P. Guidry & Mohammad Azizul Islam & Dennis M. Patten, 2018. "Mandated Social Disclosure: An Analysis of the Response to the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 827-841, October.
    12. Gorman, Michael F. & Ruggiero, John, 2008. "Evaluating US state police performance using data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 1031-1037, June.
    13. Paul Hewson & Keming Yu, 2008. "Quantile regression for binary performance indicators," Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(5), pages 401-418, September.
    14. Oliver Linton & Esfandiar Maasoumi & Yoon-Jae Wang, 2002. "Consistent testing for stochastic dominance: a subsampling approach," CeMMAP working papers 03/02, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    15. Xueyan Dong & Jingyu Gao & Sunny Li Sun & Kangtao Ye, 2021. "Doing extreme by doing good," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 291-315, March.
    16. Heiko Karle & Georg Kirchsteiger & Martin Peitz, 2015. "Loss Aversion and Consumption Choice: Theory and Experimental Evidence," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 101-120, May.
    17. Shoji, Isao & Kanehiro, Sumei, 2016. "Disposition effect as a behavioral trading activity elicited by investors' different risk preferences," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 104-112.
    18. Muhammad Kashif & Thomas Leirvik, 2022. "The MAX Effect in an Oil Exporting Country: The Case of Norway," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, March.
    19. Boone, Jan & Sadrieh, Abdolkarim & van Ours, Jan C., 2009. "Experiments on unemployment benefit sanctions and job search behavior," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 937-951, November.
    20. Jos'e Cl'audio do Nascimento, 2019. "Behavioral Biases and Nonadditive Dynamics in Risk Taking: An Experimental Investigation," Papers 1908.01709, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:122:y:2014:i:2:p:321-341. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.