Background: For an organization to grow, it is important that projects are completed timely with good quality. This requires that projects are managed successfully. Attributes of project managers, sub-project managers and team leaders help them to steer the projects in the right direction. By using these attributes, project managers and sub-project managers, lead the team and direct them towards final goal. The traditional working style was that team members are located at the same physical location which helps them to interact and have face to face meetings. COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to change their working style to remote working. As a result of this, companies are now shifting towards new norm by giving flexibility to their employees of working from home even when the COVID-19 pandemic is over. The impact of new norm on the management of project team is investigated in this thesis. Trust as a characteristics of project manager is studied to see its impact on management of project teams in the setting of ‘new norm’. Despite being a vital component for project success, little is known about factors affecting trust within the technical industry in general and electrical power industry in particular. 

Objectives: The main objective of the thesis is to explore how the new norm has impacted the management of project teams within electrical power industry. Further on, the study aims to determine the factors affecting trust within electrical power industry.  

Methodology: Qualitative research method using semi-structured interviews is used to gather the empirical data for answering the research questions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with project managers, sub-project managers, and design leads working in one of the companies within electrical power industry. The data was further analyzed and categorized into different codes and themes.

Results: Using qualitative data analysis, the findings demonstrate how new norm has impacted the management of project teams. The findings also show the challenges that project managers, sub-project managers, and team leads have faced because of the change in working style. The analysis also revealed that factors such as open communication, competence, reliable behavior etc. are vital for building trust within project team.

Conclusions: Our study shows that in new way of working, there is a need to tailor the way project managers are managing their project teams. The project managers had to call for extra meetings both individually and collectively to keep track of the progress and maintain a working relationship with team members. The amount of effort required to manage the team has increased while working in the new norm. Team members are relying more on the IT system compared to the face-to-face discussion before COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from the challenges, one advantage with the online meetings is that the number of travels has reduced which has saved a lot of time and money.  Trust is identified as a key component for the project success within electrical power industry. Competence, open communication, reliable behaviour, sincerity, project milestone, and integrity were identified as key factors which affect trust. Of all these factors, open communication was rated as the most important component for building trust among team members.