Impact of Trust and Satisfaction on the Commitment-Withdrawal Relationship

Abstract

The success of a construction project depends on the performance of the project team that comprises members from participating organizations. A trusting environment is believed to be instrumental in facilitating conducive interactions among team members as trust engenders willingness to give positive view on members’ intention. In this regard, team members who are satisfied with the interactions with their counterparts are more committed while non-committed members would avoid responsibility, thus seriously hamper the overall performance of a team. Complete withdrawal is an ultimate manifestation of non-committing members. It is therefore suggested that trust and satisfaction are intrinsically linked to commitment and withdrawal. It is hypothesized that trust and satisfaction had mediating or moderating effect or both in the commitment-withdrawal relationship. With data collected from practicing construction professionals, three hypotheses were tested using moderated multiple regressions. The results indicate that complete mediating and moderating effects of trust and satisfaction are found in the commitment-trust and satisfaction-withdrawal relationships respectively. These findings also suggest that noncommitted members are often dissatisfied with their reflection but dissatisfaction alone does not necessarily lead to withdrawal. However, if distrust exists among the dissatisfied team members, withdrawal is imminent.