Abstract

Low trust levels among project parties are generally believed to harm construction project performance, but the role of trust in the context of information flow and solving design quality problems (DQP) remains understudied. Whereas lean design management research highlights the importance of managing information flow, few studies have investigated the association between trust, information flow and DQP (or any combination thereof). This exploratory study investigates the association between trust and information flow in design projects and how these factors influence design quality. The paper presents a conceptual framework based on existing research on building design management and trust in a project context. The framework is elaborated on and validated using a single case study approach with multiple sites. The results indicate that even though the trust trend in the project is somewhat negatively connected to the overall amount of work and work in progress of DQP, increasing trust is not a prerequisite for solving DQP and that owners and contractors can have opposite opinions on the trust level. This study contributes to ongoing discussions about trust, information flow and design management and suggests that teams should focus on improving communication and collaboration to compensate for low trust levels.

摘要

人们普遍认为，项目各方之间的低信任度会损害建设项目的绩效，但是，在信息流和解决设计质量问题（DQP）的背景下，信任的作用仍未得到充分研究。精益设计管理研究强调了管理信息流的重要性，但很少有研究调查信任，信息流和DQP（或其任何组合）之间的关联。这项探索性研究调查了设计项目中信任与信息流之间的关联，以及这些因素如何影响设计质量。本文基于在项目环境中对建筑设计管理和信任的现有研究，提出了一个概念框架。使用具有多个站点的单个案例研究方法来详细说明和验证该框架。结果表明，尽管项目中的信任趋势与DQP的总体工作量和在建工程之间存在一定的负相关关系，但增加信任并不是解决DQP的先决条件，业主和承包商可以对信任有相反的看法等级。这项研究有助于有关信任，信息流和设计管理的持续讨论，并建议团队应专注于改善沟通和协作以弥补低信任度。