Bridging strategic and operational issues for project business through managing trust

Purpose – Organisational trust is analysed through observation of operations or strategic prescription. The management and project management literature is largely prescriptive. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role and potential of strategic trust development and management to improve operations in the project business and enhance client satisfaction, analysing trust as social capital. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is supported by the method of and data gathered through CROL ® : a process for managing business relationships and interfaces. The case in question focuses on over 30,000 customer relationships covering five years of global operations by companies in the project business. Findings – The analysis focuses on the connection between self‐awareness, performance, improvement and the impact upon both relationships and financial performance – social capital in the “balance sheet”. The objective is to identify the extent to which trust management can help bridge the gap between prescriptive strategy and operations. Bridging this gap entails linking trust as social capital with organisational culture, operational systems and routines, and behaviours. Research limitations/implications – The analysis shows the importance of self‐awareness in managing business relationships. Practical implications – The paper outlines on a conceptual level how companies can manage trust and capture the value in business relationships. Originality/value – The paper shows how companies through systematic forced reflection can manage trust in individual business relationships.