Sifting Interactional Trust Through Institutions to Manage Trust in Project Teams: An Organizational Change Project

Abstract

Trust in project teams has been found to lead to positive project outcomes. However, the role of project managers in facilitating development of trust in projects is not well-understood. This article addresses this by exploring mechanisms to facilitate the development of interactional and institutional trust and explicating the interplay between those mechanisms. Drawing on longitudinal data from an organizational change project, findings suggest that to facilitate trust development, project managers must concurrently exercise four practices: preaching, involving, sympathizing, and adhering. Simultaneous and tailored application of the first three practices affects interactional trust; the latter not only fosters institutional trust but is also a necessary filter for the dynamics of interactional trust.

Keywords

trust management institutional trust interactional trust project team organizational change managerial practices case study

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bachmann

Inkpen

A. C

. (2011). Understanding institutional-based trust-building processes in inter-organizational relationships. Organization Studies, 32(2), 281–301.doi:10.1177/0170840610397477

Bond-Barnard

T. J.

Fletcher

Steyn

. (2018). Linking trust and collaboration in project teams to project management success. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 11(2), 432–457.doi:10.1108/IJMPB-06-2017-0068

Bryman

. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford University Press.

Buvik

M. P.

Rolfsen

. (2015). Prior ties and trust development in project teams—A case study from the construction industry. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), 1484–1494.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.06.002

Chow

P. T.

Cheung

S. O.

Chan

K. Y

. (2012). Trust-building in construction contracting: Mechanism and expectation. International Journal of Project Management, 30(8), 927–937.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.03.002

Clark

M. C.

Payne

R. O. Y. L

. (1997). The nature and structure of workers’ trust in management. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18(3), 205–224.doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199705)18:3<205::AID-JOB792>3.0.CO;2-V

Creswell

J. W.

Poth

C. N

. (2016). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. SAGE Publications.

de Oliveira

G. F.

Rabechini

. (2019). Stakeholder management influence on trust in a project: A quantitative study. International Journal of Project Management, 37(1), 131–144.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.11.001

Dubois

Gadde

L.-E

. (2002). Systematic combining: An abductive approach to case research. Journal of Business Research, 55(7), 553–560.doi:10.1016/S0148-2963(00)00195-8

10.

Eisenhardt

K. M

. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550.doi:10.5465/amr.1989.4308385

11.

Flyvbjerg

. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245.doi:10.1177/1077800405284363

12.

Gioia

D. A.

Corley

K. G.

Hamilton

A. L

. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16(1), 15–31.

13.

Grabher

. (2002). Cool projects, boring institutions: Temporary collaboration in social context. Regional Studies, 36(3), 205–214.doi:10.1080/00343400220122025

14.

Gustafsson

Smyth

Ganskau

Arhippainen

. (2010). Bridging strategic and operational issues for project business through managing trust. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 3(3), 422–442.doi:10.1108/17538371011056066

15.

Hartman

F. T

. (2000). Smart trust: A foundation for more effective project management [Paper presentation]. Paper presented at the Proceedings of 15th IPMA World Congress on Project Management, London.

16.

Hartman

F. T

. (2002). The role of trust in project management. In Slevin

D. P.

Cleland

D. I.

Pinto

J. K.

(Eds.), The frontiers of project management research. Project Management Institute.

17.

Huang

Wilkinson

I. F

. (2013). The dynamics and evolution of trust in business relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(3), 455–465.doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.02.016

18.

Jiang

. (2016). Trust and project success: A twofold perspective between owners and contractors. Journal of Management in Engineering, 32(6), 04016022.doi:10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000469

19.

Kadefors

. (2004). Trust in project relationships—Inside the black box. International Journal of Project Management, 22(3), 175–182.doi:10.1016/S0263-7863(03)00031-0

20.

Khalfan

M. M. A.

McDermott

Swan

. (2007). Building trust in construction projects. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 12(6), 385–391.doi:10.1108/13598540710826308

21.

Korsgaard

M. A.

Schweiger

D. M.

Sapienza

H. J

. (1995). Building commitment, attachment, and trust in strategic decision-making teams: The role of procedural justice. Academy of Management Journal, 38(1), 60–84.

22.

Lander

M. C.

Purvis

R. L.

McCray

G. E.

Leigh

. (2004). Trust-building mechanisms utilized in outsourced is development projects: A case study. Information & Management, 41(4), 509–528.doi:10.1016/j.im.2003.10.001

23.

Lewicki

R. J.

Bunker

B. B

. (1996). Developing and maintaining trust in work relationships. In Kramer

R. M.

Tyler

T. R.

(Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research (pp. 114–139). SAGE Publications.

24.

Lewis

J. D.

Weigert

. (1985). Trust as a social reality. Social Forces, 63(4), 967–985.doi:10.2307/2578601

25.

Maurer

. (2010). How to build trust in inter-organizational projects: The impact of project staffing and project rewards on the formation of trust, knowledge acquisition and product innovation. International Journal of Project Management, 28(7), 629–637.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.11.006

26.

Mayer

R. C.

Davis

J. H.

Schoorman

F. D

. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709–734.doi:10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335

27.

McAllister

D. J

. (1995). Affect-and cognition-based trust as foundations for interpersonal cooperation in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 38(1), 24–59.

28.

McKnight

D. H.

Cummings

L. L.

Chervany

N. L

. (1998). Initial trust formation in new organizational relationships. Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 473–490.doi:10.5465/amr.1998.926622

29.

Meyerson

Weick

K. E.

Kramer

R. M

. (1996). Swift trust and temporary groups. In Kramer

R. M.

Tyler

T. R.

(Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research (pp. 166–195). SAGE Publications.

30.

Miles

M. B.

Huberman

M. A.

Saldana

. (2014). Fundamentals of qualitative data analysis. In Miles

M. B.

Huberman

M. A.

Saldana

(Eds.), Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (pp. 61–102). SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4522-5787-7.

31.

Munns

A. K

. (1995). Potential influence of trust on the successful completion of a project. International Journal of Project Management, 13(1), 19–24.doi:10.1016/0263-7863(95)95699-E

32.

Parkhe

. (1998). Understanding trust in international alliances. Journal of World Business, 33(3), 219–240.doi:10.1016/S1090-9516(99)80072-8

33.

Patton

M. Q

. (2005). Qualitative research. In Everitt

B. S.

Howell

D. C.

(Eds.), Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science (pp. 1633–1636). John Wiley & Sons.

34.

Pinto

J. K.

Slevin

D. P.

English

. (2009). Trust in projects: An empirical assessment of owner/contractor relationships. International Journal of Project Management, 27(6), 638–648.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.09.010

35.

Ponterotto

J. G

. (2005). Qualitative research in counseling psychology: A primer on research paradigms and philosophy of science. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(2), 126–136.doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.126

36.

Rezvani

Khosravi

Ashkanasy

N. M

. (2018). Examining the interdependencies among emotional intelligence, trust, and performance in infrastructure projects: A multilevel study. International Journal of Project Management, 36(8), 1034–1046.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.08.002

37.

Ring

P. S.

Van De Ven

A. H

. (1994). Developmental processes of cooperative interorganizational relationships. Academy of Management Review, 19(1), 90–118.doi:10.5465/amr.1994.9410122009

38.

Rousseau

D. M.

Sitkin

S. B.

Burt

R. S.

Camerer

. (1998). Not so different after all: A cross-discipline view of trust. Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 393–404.doi:10.5465/amr.1998.926617

39.

Seidman

I. E

. (2013). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. Teachers College Press.

40.

Shapiro

D. L.

Sheppard

B. H.

Cheraskin

. (1992). Business on a handshake. Negotiation Journal, 8(4), 365–377.doi:10.1111/j.1571-9979.1992.tb00679.x

41.

Shapiro

S. P

. (1987). The social control of impersonal trust. American Journal of Sociology, 93(3), 623–658.doi:10.1086/228791

42.

Sitkin

S. B.

George

. (2005). Managerial trust-building through the use of legitimating formal and informal control mechanisms. International Sociology, 20(3), 307–338.doi:10.1177/0268580905055479

43.

Sjöblom

Löfgren

Godenhjelm

. (2013). Projectified politics—Temporary organisations in a public context. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 17(2), 3–12.

44.

Strahorn

Gajendran

Brewer

. (2015). The influence of trust in traditional contracting: Investigating the “lived experience” of stakeholders. Construction Economics and Building, 15(2), 81–101.doi:10.5130/AJCEB.v15i2.4408

45.

Whetten

D. A

. (1989). What constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 490–495.doi:10.5465/amr.1989.4308371

46.

Wong

W. K.

Cheung

S. O.

Yiu

T. W.

Pang

H. Y

. (2008). A framework for trust in construction contracting. International Journal of Project Management, 26(8), 821–829.doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.11.004

47.

Yang

. (2014). What makes an effective team? The role of trust (dis)confirmation in team development. European Management Journal, 32(6), 858–869.doi:10.1016/j.emj.2014.04.001

48.

Yin

R. K

. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. SAGE Publications. Inc.