Competitive advantages of organizational project management maturity: A quantitative descriptive study in Australia.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether organizational project management maturity in the project management consultancy industry offers any competitive advantages to a business when it tenders for contracts. We collected 150 responses from both members and former members of professional Australian project management associations in order to examine and understand any potential effects of project management maturity on management and organizations. The statistical software SPSS was used to analyze the data collected with the confidence interval (alpha) set at 5%. The results of this study reveal that organizational project management maturity has an effect on competitive advantages as noted by the project managers (p < .0001; 99.99%; H0 -rejected). The study also shows that the perception of competitive advantages for organizational project management maturity is based on the level of maturity reached. It also reveals that an organization is winning contracts/jobs due to various other competencies, particularly soft skills such as client relationships, stakeholder management, communications skills, and modes of client engagement.