Dynamics of Trusting in Translation Project Management: Leaps of Faith and Balancing Acts

Abstract

This paper examines the work of project managers in two UK-based translation companies. Drawing on participant observation, interviews and artefacts from field sites, our analysis focuses on the ways in which trust is developed and maintained in the relationships that project managers build, on the one hand, with the clients who commission them to undertake translation projects, and, on the other, with freelance translators who perform the translation work. The project manager's ability both to confer and to instil trust is highlighted as key to the successful operation of the company. Conceptualizing trust as a dynamic process, we consider what this process of trusting entails in this context: positive expectations vis-à-vis the other parties; willingness to expose oneself to vulnerabilities; construction of bases for suspending doubts and uncertainties (leaps of faith). We observe the important role of communication and discursive strategies in building and maintaining trust and draw conclusions for translator education. Keywords professional translation, translation project management, freelance translation, trust, translator educationProfessional translators are engaged predominantly as freelancers by translation agencies or companies (henceforth TCs), where their work is usually managed by in-house, salaried project managers (henceforth PMs). The PM is the main and often the only point of contact for translators in their daily work and for clients who require translation, so the PM's dealings with both translators and clients are likely to be crucial to the success or failure of a TC. In this paper we examine the relations between these parties, drawing on the first phase of an ethnographic study of UK-based

Knowing in translation practice

“…In that regard, it also contributes to a nascent but growing body of workplace research conducted in commercial translation settings (e.g. Risku 2009;LeBlanc 2013;Ehrensberger-Dow 2014;Olohan and Davitti 2015;Ehrensberger-Dow and O'Brien 2015).…”

译员客户匹配方式的颠覆：众包平台和人力项目经理的对比

“…In the conventional "pipeline" business model, translator-client matching is carried out by human project managers. Olohan and Davitti (2015) provide a detailed description of how this is done in small-to-medium-sized LSPs, where project managers place importance on building trust between their translators and themselves. This is achieved through various methods, which include, according to Olohan and Davitti's workplace observation: making the translators feel they are in control by allowing them some freedom to suggest deadlines; taking care to use the translator's preferred mode of communication (e.g.…”

Translation practice in the field

“…Hébert-Malloch (2004) made similar observations in her analysis of the videorecordings of a translator at work. Risku and Windhager (2013), , Olohan and Davitti (2017), and Risku (2016) shed light on the role of translation agencies and the long ignored area of project management. These studies show that project management coordinates and facilitates the translation process, and that it contributes to shape and structure it (for the role of interpreting agencies in the provision of community interpreting services, see Dong and Turner 2016).…”

“…This clearly shows that modern-day translation and interpreting must be seen as a social praxis in a dynamic, networked production framework (see Buzelin 2006;Abdallah and Koskinen 2007;Abdallah 2012). Researchers have also elaborated on trust (Abdallah and Koskinen 2007;Olohan and Davitti 2017), on the role of collective decision-making, on the effects of asymmetric information/goal conflicts and the interplay between ethics and quality (Abdallah 2010), and on the role of cooperation and conflict in collaborative work environments (Marinetti and Rose 2013).…”