Head contractors perception of trust issues amongst their construction relationship with subcontractors

Trust is an essential factor in achieving successful project completion in the construction industry. Relationships between head contractors and subcontractors are commonly surrounded by untrustworthy behaviour that promotes the development of trust issues between the parties. This research considers the various types of trust issues that can arise, whether characteristic, process, or institutional based, and focuses on which type head contractors perceive as being the most important to their contractual and project relationships. Empirical data was gathered from semi structured qualitative interviews and analysed using a one-way between groups analysis of variance. Findings revealed that head contractors perceived institutional based trust to be their most important and valued type of trust. The findings also implied that the identification of the head contractor’s perspective of trust could assist in improving their performance throughout the construction project.