Why is Trust Important to Project Management?

In 1994 the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) established a Chair in collaboration with the Social Sciences Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada and a number of industry partners. This Chair had a five-year mandate to identify better ways to manage projects. Working closely with industry, a research program was established and a number of research initiatives undertaken over this five-year period. These research initiatives studied such topics as contacting, team effectiveness, distributed project teams, value engineering, schedule acceleration, predictability of project outcomes in the early stages of project definition, project performance assessment, time to market, cost reduction, and incentive schemes for contracts. Other topics included research into risk identification and apportionment, dispute resolution, and the meaning of contract clauses. All of the research findings had one common factor.

The common factor in all of the findings in the first five years of research was trust. This in itself was an interesting discovery. It led to a review of the available literature and to an assessment of the potential impact of trust on the practice of project management. The potential implications appeared to be profound. Some of the potential areas of impact included better client relationships, accelerated time to market, reduced risk premiums in contracting—and thus, lower project costs and more effective communication. The last item alone made further exploration of the trust phenomenon worthwhile, as communication breakdowns account for most, if not all, project failures.

With some trepidation, the need for the study of trust was presented to industry sponsors of the research program as a potential next phase in the work of the Chair holder. The proposal was immediately accepted and a plan to apply for renewed funding from NSERC and SSHRC was made on this basis. The proposal for a second term of federal funding for the Chair was made and accepted. The potential impact and value of the research had been assessed and accepted.