Leap Trends · Culture · Trust
Also touches on the condition Leadership · How we choose the condition
Briefing
Trust and culture as seen by executives and by employees
- Gap between the top and the front line
- Trust in leadership
- Unwritten rules
Executives think employees trust them and understand the culture. Recent measurements show a widening gap: fewer than half of employees trust their leadership, and only one in five feels strongly connected to their own organisation's culture. Leadership is the last to notice.
This briefing has not been updated for more than three months. Check the figures against the source before you use them.
Compiled with AI from public sources, with the source for every figure. Key figures labelled Checked have been compared with the source by a person. How that works
Key figures
- ~90%of CEOs think employees trust their leadership; 46% of employees say the same.Boston Consulting GroupNot yet checked
- −7 ppfall in trust in management in a single year; fewer than half trust the top (PwC, almost 50,000 workers).PwCNot yet checked
- 20%of American employees say they trust the leadership of their own organisation (May 2026).GallupNot yet checked
What the sources say
This autumn BCG put the boardroom and the workforce side by side. Of the 645 CEOs surveyed, almost nine in ten think employees trust their leadership. Among employees, 46 per cent say so. Seven in ten CEOs think their people trust that wellbeing gets priority in budget decisions; 36 per cent of employees confirm this. And 58 per cent of CEOs are not worried about growing discontent.
It is not a snapshot. PwC surveyed almost 50,000 workers worldwide and saw trust in management fall by seven percentage points in a year; fewer than half now trust the top. In the US, Gallup finds that one in five employees trusts their leadership, one in six thinks leadership communicates well and one in five feels strongly connected to their own organisation’s culture. These are American and global figures; Dutch confirmation is still missing.
So the unwritten rules are no longer shared, and leadership is the last to notice, because nobody tells it. Writing in HBR, Seth and Edmondson even find employees using AI to phrase their concerns because they do not dare voice them directly. That says something about trust, not about technology.
Among lawyers, accountants and tax advisers, the same gap shows up around AI. In March and April 2026 Thomson Reuters surveyed 1,816 professionals in 62 countries. Where the firm or department has a stated AI strategy, 35 per cent say day-to-day practice does not match it. The reasons cited most often are missing tools, people not trained to work that way and no shared understanding of the plan. In the foreword, chief executive Steve Hasker writes that many organisations have written down their AI strategy, yet it does not show up in how teams experience their work.
How solid is this? The gap was measured by three institutes in 2025 and 2026, and PwC sees trust in management falling within a year. The BCG sample of employees is small (500), so the picture is not yet settled.
For the leadership team
The danger in these figures is that they do not reach the boardroom: those who overestimate trust are rarely told so. The question for the leadership team is therefore about the source: how does leadership actually know whether employees trust it, and when was that last measured anonymously?
Sources
- Boston Consulting GroupForty Percent of Employees Say Their CEO Isn't Transparent Enough on AI
Closing the AI trust gap will require greater visibility, communication, and engagement from CEOs.
- PwCGlobal Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2026
- Harvard Business Review · Jayshree Seth and Amy C. EdmondsonWhat Leaders Need to Know About AI and Psychological Safety
- Thomson Reuters InstituteFuture of Professionals Report 2026: When the AI strategy doesn't reach the desk
Among professionals whose firm or department has a named AI strategy, 35% say day-to-day practice does not match it.
- GallupGlobal Indicator: Leadership & Management
- GallupGlobal Indicator: Organizational Culture
We summarise in our own words and quote no more than one sentence per source. Read the original: there is more in it. How we use sources.
Academic research
- TIAS School for Business and Society · Sonneveld et al.Supervisor-employee perception differences in a survey of Dutch veterinary small- and medium-sized practices
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas · ShenPrincipal-Teacher School Climate Perception Gaps and Their Association With Teaching Practices: A Multilevel Analysis
- Universidad de Valladolid · Poves‐Álvarez et al.The Leadership Perception Gap in Spanish Anesthesiology Departments: A National Cross-Sectional Survey Comparing Department Heads and Staff Views
Academic articles on the same phenomenon, no more than a year old at the last search, from universities in Europe and North America, found through the open database OpenAlex. These articles count towards the publications per month; the text and key figures above are based on the sources. How we choose the articles.
How this briefing has been updated
Title now describes the topics; previously “The top overestimates how much the front line trusts it” (AI)
Gartner press release replaced by PwC's Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2026; key point and text adjusted accordingly. (AI)
Added 1 publication after a search round on new topics and sources. (AI)
Added 3 articles from universities in Europe and North America (via OpenAlex). (AI)
First draft based on BCG, Gartner, Gallup and HBR. (AI)