In January, Edelman released their largest ever study on credibility and trust - the Edelman Trust Barometer 2007. To see a webcast of a panel discussion centered on the study, click here.  

Over 3000 respondents from 18 countries took part in the survey, all college-educated, 25 to 64 years of age, reporting a household income in the top-quartile of their country and reporting having significant interest in and engagement with the media and economic and policy affairs.

In other words, this study doesn't paint a picture of what society in general thinks about the trustworthiness of business and government, but rather what the economic/intellectual elite think. That said, the folks at Edelman made some interesting interpretations based on their findings:

• According to Richard Edelman, smart companies do things inside-out. "The smart company will use the CEO to inform investors, elite media, and other traditional stakeholders, while at the same time it will arm its employees and customers with information to discuss issues with their peers."  
• Although articles in industry magazines and analyst reports remain credible as sources of information in the eyes of most respondents, conversations with friends and peers ranks just as high in many countries. In fact, in Europe, North and Latin America, a 'person like me' is considered to be the most credible source of information about a company.
• Respondents in the United States and Europe told surveyors that rank-and-file employees are more trusted than CEOs.
• According to Michael Deaver, "Technology continues to be the most - and only - globally trusted industry." This one really fascinates me, because it seems every time I research best practices in internal communications, tech companies inevitably pop-up as doing it best.

So what's the lesson here? Effective internal communications isn't about 'thinking outside the box,' it's about turning the box inside-out.