Extra Commitment

Relational-based trust enabled SCs to demonstrate extra commitment as they knew this would be reciprocated by Alpha in the form of future work opportunity. SCs were prepared to go an ‘extra mile’ due to the strong confidence that derived from their relational experience - that Alpha would help them out with work opportunity if they were in a difficult position. Such SCs emphasised the exclusive priority they gave to Alpha because they knew that mutually acceptable solutions could always be reached on payments and other assistance during later negotiations. This behaviour had particular influence on programme compliance as without such extra commitments, work could sometimes have halted until payment disagreements were resolved. Such SCs further emphasised their willingness to also commit specific personnel that Alpha’s project team had requested for the project. It was observed during a pre-start meeting with the tiling and mosaic SC, how Alpha’s project team requested for a particular supervisor – which could only be possible because they were familiar with their working gangs.

Apart from during the project, this behaviour was also demonstrated at tendering stage. SCs that had a long history of working relationship and consequently relational-based trust were prepared to provide extra tendering support to Alpha. One of the SCs that had developed relational-based trust with Alpha made this remark:

Page | 153

“…we will always do their tenders for them and…he [company director] puts a lot of time and effort. He will do the specs for [Alpha] and we might not even win the job. He may put, like coming out of a whole weekend, mark up all the drawings, put the spec together, give it back to them,...so that’s how the trust has probably kept up over the years because he puts in a hell of a lot of his own time to do a lot for [Alpha] and sometimes we don’t win the work, which can be frustrating” – Quantity

surveyor, Scaffolding SC

Thus it can be seen again how some SCs were still prepared to make extra commitments to preserve long-term supply chain relationships that had built up over several years, although there was sometimes an acknowledgement of disappointment. This disappointment did not however outweigh the long-term benefits or value that was expected to be derived from such strong interpersonal bonds – emphasising that their reasons for being trustful were dependent on the value that derived from their trusting response.

The inter-organisational trust i.e. cognition, system and relational-based trust that emerged from Alpha’s SCM practices resulted in behavioural and project performance consequences during the Alpha project, particularly amongst ‘category one’ SCs who were prepared to demonstrate extra commitment as well as maintain flexibility in the supply chain relationship due to relationally derived trust.

5.7 SUMMARY

This chapter has discussed the SCM practices of Alpha which were revealed as comprising a supply chain orientation, supply chain assessment, supply base management, performance scoring, CPI activities, long-term relationships and supply chain motivation & rewards. The different emphasis that Alpha’s project team and their SCs placed on trust attributes have also been discussed, all of which were influenced by Alpha’s SCM practices. Furthermore, three forms of trust: cognition-based, system-based and relational-based have been

Page | 154 discussed to have manifested during the project. These trust dimensions were also linked to different aspects of Alpha’s SCM practices. In particular, the establishment of long-term relationships with their ‘category one’ SCs promoted relational-based trust whereas all the other features contributed to the manifestation of cognition and system-based trust. The various factors that influenced inter-organisational trust development during the project have also been discussed as: change management, economic climate, payment issues, project-specific context, job performance and perceived opportunity for future work. Some of these factors were linked to different aspects of Alpha’s SCM process.

Lastly, the functional consequences of trust have been discussed. The three dimensions of trust i.e. cognition-based, system-based and relational-based helped to promote effective knowledge sharing and self-organising behaviour. However, relational-based trust in particular promoted relational flexibility and extra commitment, which were very essential for achieving satisfactory performance when work packages were considered to be highly complex, critical to the programme or subject to numerous variations. It has thus been revealed how Alpha’s SCM practices influenced inter-organisational trust development and its functional consequences during the Alpha project. The next chapter (Chapter Six) presents findings from the Beta case study.

Page | 155

CHAPTER SIX: CASE STUDY BETA

6.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses results from the Beta case study. The first section outlines the case study background, which would be useful for interpreting findings within context. Beta’s SCM strategy, trust manifestation and its functional consequences are further discussed. These discussions are intended to reveal the implications that Beta’s SCM practices had on inter-organisational trust and its functional consequences during the project. This is in accordance with the research aim, which sought to investigate SCM practices adopted by selected UK MCs and its consequent influence on inter-organisational trust development. The chapter thus contributes to objective four of the research.

6.2 CASE STUDY BACKGROUND

To help interpret findings from the Beta case study within context, it is important to present the background of the organisation, describe the Beta project and provide some background information about the research participants.