| Service organizations are developing customer-intimate, coproduction relationships in an attempt to enhance the quality and acceptance of services and promote the development of long-term business relations. Within the service organization, professional project managers are often responsible for these customer-intimate relationships. Industrial/organizational psychology and organizational theory researchers know a great deal about interpersonal relationships within the organization; however, we know little about the client-professional relationship; the nature of the relationship, how it is developed and sustained, as well as its critical organizational outcomes. This dissertation uses insights about relationships from agency theory and stewardship theory, as well as relationship management/marketing, interpersonal and interorganizational trust, and product development/project management literatures to investigate three models of the client-professional relationship impacting client trust and loyalty. The results demonstrate the value of the stewardship and expanded stewardship models over the agency model for explaining the client-professional relationship. More specifically, findings show that having the client's affective trust contributes over and above having the client's cognitive trust when predicting actual client affective loyalty. Further, it was discovered that while the project manager's reliable project performance facilitates client cognitive trust, the project manager's continuous and effective management of information, seeking and championing of new ideas, and assisting the client contact in managing his/her personal reputation together result in increased client affective trust. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. |