Conclusions and Observations

Trust has moved from an item of mild curiosity to one of being a business imperative. It needs to be managed. As what trust means is different for each of us, trying to define trust will forever be an exercise in futility. Studying it as a psychological phenomenon is undoubtedly both fascinating and necessary. But it is Pandora's research box!

The use of the color analogy and a mechanical model as opposed to psychological model for trust behavior allows the question of trust to be tackled in a more neutral and—arguably—a more depersonalized way.

The model described previously has been developed as a basis for a funded research program. It is based on an extensive review of the literature on this subject and a good amount of scholarship. It has been tested against trust situations drawn from the literature. In particular, it has been tested against the situations that other models have specifically failed to explain. Yet, an empirical research program needs to be completed to test this concept in a set of real situations. The author is looking for test sites and cases in the world of project management for this next phase in developing better ways to manage trust as part of the business of improving project management.

The Implications of the Trust Model on Project Management

The brief discussion of the project management related issues, previously, should have identified the nature of the implication of this model on project management as a whole. Let's now review the issues again at a higher level. For this chapter, just two critical issues are presented, followed by a brief update on the research since the paper underlying this chapter was initially written.

Re-Casting the Definition of Project Management

In a recent book, the author defined projects as anything that sustains or improves shareholder value (or its equivalent in the government sector). Any of these following activities delivers a step change that puts us back where we were—Y2K project, corporate reorganization that makes us as competitive as the competition, advertising campaign to maintain or regain market share, re-tooling for this year's model of car, ski, cell-phone, or other product. Or it helps us grow—new factory, new drug approved for manufacture and sale, new software package, oil discovered and recovered.

This definition of projects puts a new set of pressures on all of us in the business of managing them. We need to be faster, more accurate, better, and cheaper than the competition in delivering the needed results to our customers. The big driver is responsiveness and speed. Not new, it is however at the point where we need to redefine the success of projects in terms other than the traditional ones of "on time, within budget, and meets technical specifications." This definition needs to include perceptions of success. The perception of success is dependent in no small part on the trust we have in what we see and whom we deal with.