Trust in projects: An empirical assessment of owner/contractor relationships

A great deal of literature has pointed to the importance of trust as a facilitator of positive relationships among project stakeholders. Trust is argued to enhance a variety of intra-organizational relationships, including project team dynamics, top management support, and coordination across functional departments. Likewise, trust is argued to improve the inter-organizational relationships among principal actors in project development, such as contractors, owners, and suppliers. This paper reports on the results of an empirical study that investigated the impact of trust between project owners and contractors in a number of large construction projects in Canada. We operationalized trust along the Hartman [Hartman FT. The role of trust in project management. In: Slevin DP, Cleland DI, Pinto JK, editors. The frontiers of project management research. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute; 2002, p. 225–35] dimensions as incorporating both competence and integrity and compared the perspectives of project contractors and owners. Using regression and path analysis, we analyzed the differential effects of competence and integrity trust on enhanced owner/contractor relationships and project success. Our findings indicate that trust has different meanings for contractors and owners, as its impact on satisfaction with the relationship and positive project outcomes varies depending upon which group is surveyed.