Smith, J P (2013) Trust-building in the construction project delivery process: A relational lookahead tool for managing trust. PhD thesis, Texas A&M University, USA.
Abstract
Low levels of productivity and recent evolutions in technology and practices are pushing the construction industry to collaborate on a higher level. A key component of effective collaboration is trust. Research also suggests that increased trust levels can lead to improved productivity in team performance. Trust appears to be valued by industry practitioners at the executive level but it also appears that active management of trust is minimal. With Design Science Research methodology as a framework, this project uses a mixed methods approach to develop and test a tool designed to assist in the management of trust levels between construction project participants. This project lays the groundwork for additional research into trust-building in construction by testing whether or not trust can be actively built and managed by rigorous analysis of current and upcoming relationships. In addition to supporting data from case studies, this was accomplished by introducing specific trust-building techniques into student group interactions and comparing changes in interpersonal trust levels to a control group of students. Results from the case studies and student experiment show some support for the idea that interpersonal trust levels, as perceived by the person making the attempts to build trust within the group, can be increased through use of a tool such as the one developed. Further testing and development is needed prior to wider industry application.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Rybkowski, Z K and Shepley, M M |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | trust; construction project; collaboration; design science; productivity; experiment; case studies |
| Index terms: | team performance, construction industry, testing, interaction, executive, productivity, low level, mixed method, case study, trust-building, practitioner, collaboration, construction project, methodology, evolution, experiment, construction project delivery, science, design science research |
| Subjects: | behavioral psychology, research methods, production management, psychology, environmental science, professional practice, specialized education, practitioner, project controls, measurement and scaling, industry analysis, management, design practice, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Time Control, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Education, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here