Trust inventory for the spallation neutron source virtual project team

This paper reports the findings from a trust inventory (survey) of the country's largest science project, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). SNS is a virtual project team comprised of six national laboratories. The inventory evaluated traditional Co-located team trust factors, Virtual team trust factors that are based on team leader and team member actions, and whether trust factors related to Swift Trust were present on the SNS project. The order of trust factors having the most to the least impact on the project was Virtual team, Co-located team, and then Swift Trust. The inventory showed the project's trust climate was healthy. Positive scores were recorded in the Virtual team trust factor subcategories of performance, competency and integrity. The "Concern for others" subcategory, however, needed attention across the entire project. Trust inventory scores for this subcategory were low at every national lab. The 38-question survey used a Likert-type scale. One partnering laboratory had a disproportionately higher share of lowest scoring questions.