More Than Mere Reliance: An Account of Corporate Trust & Distrust

Philosophers have studied interpersonal trust in depth but have said much less about trust in groups. Corporations, as a subset of groups, have received even less attention as objects of trust. Any account of corporate trust must first reckon with Katherine Hawley’s (2017) sceptical challenge. Hawley argues that the distinction between morally rich trust and mere reliance, though central to accounts of interpersonal trust, can be abandoned for groups at little theoretical cost. Against Hawley, I argue that abandoning the trust–reliance distinction in corporate contexts is theoretically costly. Hawley suggests that resentment towards a group can be redirected either to its members or to broader unjust social structures. But such redirection overlooks how corporations make, maintain, and break commitments through their own organizational structures. I then ask what follows from a minimalist stance on rational corporate agency, where corporations can make commitments in their own name and be answerable for keeping or breaking commitments. Given this stance, our relations with corporations would extend into moral territory beyond mere reliance.

On the account of corporate trust I propose, morally significant trust is not uniquely interpersonal, but includes trust grounded in corporate commitments as a distinct form. Further, when a corporation cultivates our reliance, makes exit costly, and opportunistically breaks its commitments, betrayal and distrust (rather than mere non-reliance) are fitting. I end by drawing out some of the theoretical and pragmatic benefits of my account for future work on corporate trust and distrust.

Sareh Pouryousefi
https://www.torontomu.ca/tedrogersschool/business-management/majors/law-and-business/faculty/sareh-pouryousefi/
Associate Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
Visiting Professor, University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics

About the Speaker:

Dr. Pouryousefi's research focuses on the normative foundations of business ethics and her current work is on trust and trustworthiness. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Philosophical Studies, Utilitas, and Inquiry. She was the recipient of TRSM Research Recognition Awards in 2022 and 2025. Dr. Pouryousefi serves on the Editorial Review Board of Business Ethics Quarterly and is a co-editor of its Special Issue on Normativity in Business Ethics and Beyond. Dr. Pouryousefi has taught courses in business ethics, critical thinking, healthcare ethics, public administration ethics, organizational behaviour, and corporate social responsibility. Her teaching was recognized with school- and university-level awards at the University of Toronto and the University of Nottingham.

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This is a talk with audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics that is free to attend and open to the public. Free pizza and refreshments will be provided at the event. The talk will also be streamed online with live chat here [to be posted].

About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca):

The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life.

In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society.

The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai