Mechanisms of trust and trust repair in relational contracting: a multiple perspective investigation of alliance projects

The softer social skills are a key element in the project manager's toolkit, and developing a sense of trust across a project team can be a critical contributor to the project's outcome. This is particularly important where the form of commercial engagement is relational in nature. Alliance projects in construction underpinned by "pain-share/gain-share" principles bring this importance to the fore, and yet little research exists in this field. This research was designed to reveal the intricacies of trust formation and maintenance in such an environment. Initially the concept of trust was deconstructed, analysed and synthesised into a series of identifiable personal attributes, attitudes and behaviours. Thereafter a model of characteristics was developed in order to code and analyse a series of 10 detailed interviews with multiple representatives from 9 firms and the client organisation, the preliminary results of which are presented here. The research confirmed the relevance of trust dimensions, along with an absence of strategies for trust building, maintenance and repair within project management practice. With adversarial dispute resolution prevalent, greater attention to trust and its dimensions would be highly beneficial for Alliance Project practitioners. Specifically, careful attention to project team member selection, strategies for relationship formation and trust building, and open and honest communication should be the focus for stakeholder education in this regard. Furthermore, the skills and traits ascribed to individual stakeholders were considered critical to project success, and included excellent communication skills, technical competence, fairness, integrity, honesty and benevolence. The risks inherent within an alliance project were also considered significant, with the establishment of trust early in a project facilitating a shared purpose and collaborative approach to problem solving which enhanced project outcomes. When trust did break down, the pre-existence of strong relationships was considered to be the main weapon against an adversarial based response, and there was little evidence of knowledge regarding methods of trust repair.