The trust challenge
22nd Jul 2010
"The challenges currently facing the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) contain lessons for all those who communicate in the public eye.
Sir Alan Budd's evidence to the Treasury Select Committee last week acknowledged that the OBR being located inside the Treasury, relying on official resources, and with media inquiries handled by the Treasury's press office, had ‘raised doubts about our independence in some quarters.’
This raises an interesting dilemma - is it better for the OBR to be inside government with full access to sensitive data but vulnerable to accusations of political influence, or on the outside - independent but with limited access?
Most commentators believe that unless the government's fiscal projections are seen to be free from political influence, there can be no confidence in its ability to govern. Some would argue that it was Gordon Brown's playing fast and loose with the ‘golden rule’ that marked the beginning of his fall from grace.
The issue is essentially one of trust - the credibility of a message is lost unless the audience can believe in the credibility of the source.
This is a central tenet of corporate communications programmes. Effective reputation management establishes an organisation's ‘right to be heard’ by earning credibility for its messages and confidence in its performance. With reputation known to influence consumer behaviour, the bottom line impact of good communication cannot be ignored."