The Efficacy of Action at a Distance as a Control Mechanism in the Construction Industry When a Trust Relationship Breaks Down: an Illustrative Case Study

A paper published by one of the authors (Woodward and Squires, 1996), described a situation where the accounting information system used by a geographically‐remote project manager to report progress on a project to his headquarters proved inadequate for that task. The inadequacy was particularly relevant in the reported case, in that the object project was one of considerable significance to the company, being the largest and most complex it had ever undertaken. While the earlier paper concentrated initially upon identifying the perceived shortcomings in the organization’s accounting information system, and subsequently upon delineating the proposal for a ‘workable’ solution thereto, the purpose of the present paper is rather to analyse the situation earlier reported, in the context of a perceived breakdown in the trust relationship existing between the project manager and his superior, the company’s managing director. The managing director trusted his subordinate, although it seems apparent retrospectively that the trusting relationship existing was abused. While the underpinning precept of trust is thus fundamental to the present analysis, it is additionally necessary to utilize as relevant concepts: the veracity of the company’s control mechanism (via the concept of action at a distance) to adequately report what was happening remote from headquarters; the assumption that the project manager, as agent, had the potential to abuse his position; and, finally, that the project manager’s professional affiliation was probably insufficiently strong to sustain self‐control based upon ‘clan’ considerations. It also emerges from the analysis that multiple, rather than single, trust relationships were at work.