https://doi.org/10.24928/2025/0136
Bridging Perspectives: a Thematic Analysis of Trust in Construction Management
Zeina Malaeb1 & Farook Hamzeh2
1Ph.D. Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, [email protected]2Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, [email protected]
Abstract
With the increased interest in collaborative project delivery, a focus on behavioral elements is needed to increase the effectiveness and success of delivered projects. Trust, in particular, plays a critical role in promoting team cooperation, building a relational culture, mitigating risks, minimizing conflicts, and realizing the full benefits of lean principles. However, despite the frequent mention of trust in construction management literature, research on trust, and the wider topic of soft elements, is lacking and the construction industry remains in much need of trust-related research. Starting from the basics, there is no universally accepted definition of trust and the definitions used in construction are borrowed from other fields, such as sociology, psychology, and economics, which are not all applicable to construction. Therefore, this paper aims to bridge perspectives and propose a definition of trust that is accepted and understood by construction management practitioners and researchers. For that, the authors perform a thematic analysis of 45 definitions of trust from the literature and present a thematic map outlining the interrelationships of the different elements of trust and a suggested definition. This contribution correlates trust in construction to risk in project management and will be built on in the authors’ future research.
Keywords
Behavioral elements, collaboration, relational, risk, trust.
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Reference in APA 7th edition format:
Malaeb, Z. & Hamzeh, F.. (2025). Bridging Perspectives: a Thematic Analysis of Trust in Construction Management. In Seppänen, O., Koskela, L., & Murata , K. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 33) (pp. 1404–1415). https://doi.org/10.24928/2025/0136
Shortened reference for use in IGLC papers:
Malaeb, Z. & Hamzeh, F.. (2025). Bridging Perspectives: a Thematic Analysis of Trust in Construction Management. IGLC33. https://doi.org/10.24928/2025/0136
Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.
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