Inter-organisational relationship trust repair: a ranked Delphi study with UK professionals

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide practical knowledge on how to repair trust within inter-organisational relationships (IORs), and to compare that knowledge to present academic research. IORs have an alarming failure rate upwards of 60 per cent. Although the breakdown of trust is a well-documented critical component of their failure, specific research on IOR trust repair is limited. Design/methodology/approach – The research applied a ranked Delphi study utilising UK professionals’ expertise in IOR management. Findings – The results provide two practical frameworks and several new methods for IOR trust repair; furthermore, they demonstrate consistency between professionally adopted IOR trust repair methods and those proposed academically. Research limitations/implications – The study ' s primary limitations resulted from being conducted at the lower end of its operating window, and only with panellists interested in trust repair. The implications for research are to direct investigations t...