The relation between trust and co-configuration, a literature review

Construction projects rely on collaboration between interorganisational relations with a common goal, creating value for the client. The collaboration in the construction projects is based on temporary interorganisational relations, where the deterministic approach towards project management is dominant. Thus, the deterministic mindset is dominant in construction project, earlier studies of knotworking in a Danish kindergarten construction project has indicated that facilitation of knotworking in construction projects can give the needed disruptive breaks from the routines which encourages co-configuration. The role of the facilitator covers many different aspects why an ongoing research to define this role is taking place. One of the aspects of interest is the creation of trust - can trust have a positive impact on the participants willingness to change the rules, community or division of labour in a co-configuration process? However, it is unclear what the relation between trust and co-configuration is. To address this relation, a systematic literature review is conducted to investigate which possibilities and perspectives interorganisational trust theory and methods can bring to the facilitation in a knotworking session. The preliminary results indicate that time plays an important factor in the development of interorganisational trust. Trust is being built over time which is why trust is an interesting aspect in temporary interorganisational relations. It is further indicated that swift trust is created when the trustor is willing to take a greater risk towards the trustee, presenting a connection between how trust emerges over time and the size of the risky actions which the trustor is willing to take. The findings contribute to the understanding of the many aspects of the facilitator role in co-configuration such as knotworking, by creating a focus on trust as a conscious choice to be vulnerable when making changes in rules, community or the division of labour.