Context Of Project Management Research Articles

Working up to work: Perceived employability of students commencing a project management degree

The successful acquisition of employment is influenced by a number of parameters, including the individual's perception that they are employable. This research uses sequential mixed methods to measure the perceived employability of commencing undergraduate students of a project management degree at an Australian university. Participants had lower scores on all employability dimensions in comparsion to students who had already commenced their degree, with the exception of collaboration. Gender differences emerged, with females having lower levels than males on the commencement readiness and lifelong learning dimensions. Students did not link previous work experience to perceived employability, and employability was not framed within a project management context for commencing students. Findings suggest that universities should include career education early in the qualification so that preparatory skills and knowledge are developed. Findings also highlight the importance of perceived employability in relation to project management, and how employability differs across industries and project types.

Using action research in innovation project management: building legitimacy and organizational learning in an SME during a merger process

PurposeThe purpose is to explore how the process of action research (AR) can support building legitimacy and organizational learning in innovation project management and portfolio practices in merger contexts.Design/methodology/approachMeta-reflection on method issues in Action Research through an action research case study with an innovation group during an organizational change process. This case demonstrates an example of an action research cycle focused on building practitioner legitimacy rather than problem-solving.FindingsKey findings include (1) demonstrating how AR can be used for building legitimacy through visualizing the innovation process, and embedding those visuals in top management practices of the organization; and (2) demonstrating how AR can work as an organizational learning tool in merger contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on an action research cooperation during a two-and-a-half-year period. Thus, findings offer the depth of a medium term case study. The processes of building legitimacy represent this particular case, and can be investigated in other organizational contexts to see the extent to which these issues can be generalized.Practical implicationsFor researchers, this paper offers an additional type of AR cycle to consider in their research design which can be seen as demonstrating a form of interplay between practitioner action and organizational level legitimacy. For practitioners, this paper demonstrates a connection between legitimacy and organizational learning in innovation contexts. The discussion of how visuals were co-created and used for building legitimacy for an innovation process that differs from the standard stage gate model demonstrates how engaging in AR research can contribute to developing visuals as resources for building legitimacy and organizational learning based on connections between theory and practice.Originality/valueThis case rethinks AR practice for innovation project management contexts to include legitimacy and organizational learning. This focus on legitimacy building from organizational learning and knowledge conversion contributes to our understanding of the soft side of innovation project management. Legitimacy is demonstrated to be a key concern for innovation project management practices.

Relationship quality in construction projects: A subcontractor perspective of principal contractor relationships

One of the defining characteristics of the construction industry is its subcontracting model of project organisation. Surprisingly, despite the criticality of the subcontractor/principal contractor relationship to successful project outcomes, research into this important relationship has been fragmented, disorganised and under-theorised. Mobilising theories of relationship quality to address this gap in knowledge, a survey of three hundred and thirty seven tier-one subcontractors in the Australian construction industry was undertaken to explore what factors influence relationship quality between subcontractors and principal contractors, whether these factors vary across the supply chain and how they affect overall relational satisfaction. The findings give subcontractors a missing voice in this important debate and provide a more nuanced understanding of this critical project relationship from a novel theoretical perspective. They indicate that from a subcontractor perspective, subcontractor/principal contractor relationship quality is determined by six key factors: integrity respect and fairness; prompt payment; willingness to negotiate risk and price; effective communication; concern for worker health, safety and well-being; and opportunities for early involvement in planning and design. Conceptually, when these factors are organised under the three dimensions of relationship quality theory (trust, satisfaction, and commitment), the results show that trust is by far the most important determinant of relationship quality. However, subcontractors cannot be treated as a homogeneous group and the factors that influence relationship quality and the importance of trust vary significantly between large and small subcontractors and by the amount of turnover-dependency in a relationship. Conceptually, the findings are important for refining the concept of relationship quality in a project management context and for helping construction project managers to improve often tenuous subcontractor relationships in an increasingly competitive industry where the quality of these relationships is a critical determinant of project outcomes and competitive advantage.

A network-based approach to modeling safety accidents and causations within the context of subway construction project management

It is widely accepted that the construction industry is dangerous, and subway construction projects are more inherently dangerous than general construction projects. On the basis of identifying intra-relationships between causations, intra-relationships between accidents, and inter-relationships between causations and accidents, this research aims to develop a subway construction safety risk network (SCSRN) with two layers of 56 causations and 44 accidents. Topological features were identified to denote the roles of individual nodes of causation or accident in the total network of SCSRN. Robustness assessment was conducted in the consideration of three strategies of node failure, namely, random attack, deliberate attack according to the decreasing order of node’s total degree, and deliberate attack according to the decreasing order of node’s betweenness centrality. The results indicated that the second strategy was more efficient in reducing the connectivity of SCSRN. It was suggested that managers should not pay equal attention to causations and accidents with unequal roles in the SCSRN. This research was beneficial to capturing complex cause-and-effect relationships of accident occurrence at subway construction sites. It can provide the opportunities for optimizing safety-related decisions on the elimination of causations and controlling accidents with high efficiency on site.

Managing Quality in Aviation Projects

From aircraft manufacturing, product customization, aircraft maintenance, and aircraft launch and recovery, project management is threaded through all aspects of aviation. Given the supreme importance of quality to every aircraft manufacturer, airline, and passenger, it would be expected that quality management, within the context of project management, would be a construct that is clearly defined. The aim of this mixed-methods research seeks to understand how quality is managed and assured in aviation projects, whether the current quality management framework is applicable to the aviation industry, and how quality should ultimately be managed in aviation projects. The results suggest that aviation project management could benefit by adopting a new lens for managing project quality and avoiding a surface-level adoption of quality tools designed primarily for the mass production context.

A ubiquitous project management model based on context

The context of project management often involves a high degree of uncertainty. Approaches to minimise this uncertainty and to provide proactive risk management regarding the right allocation of individuals in project teams are needed. They could reduce risks such as planning deviations from the targeted time, cost, and quality of the project. In this sense, this paper proposes a model to support risk and activity management, aimed at the allocation of individuals in projects through an ontology based on the concepts of the activity theory. This model - named Kairos - can help the allocation of appropriate resources to each project. The scenarios and prototypes applied in the evaluation of the model demonstrate its suitability and utility to support project managers.

Challenges of Design and Implementation of Program Governance <br/>—Cases from Government Bodies in UAE

The topic of governance in the government sector became an important and a widely discussed point of interest in the literature of project, program, and portfolio management in the past decade. It is eventually becoming the central focus in the policymakers’ point of view as they seek to ensure success in the selection, design, and implementation of government programs and their multi-projects. Due to the various complexities and risks underlying the project and program management context, program governance establishes a critical strategic planning element, especially in developing countries. This paper has assessed the challenges of the design and implementation of program governance in government bodies in the UAE. Interviews are carried out on senior members of sample organizations. Data collected is in binary form to specifically tailored questions. The results show critical shortcomings in stakeholders communication management and stakeholders’ engagement, program quality governance, program change governance, and program governance design. Recommendations were provided including addressing stakeholder communication issues, quality, change, and design of governance programs.

Barriers and Value Co-Destruction in a B2B Project Management Context: Agile Software Development Adoption and Rejection in Japanese Organizations

A new service concept meets some resistance from those who face it prior to adoption. If the resistance cannot be overcome, the new service will not be diffused. There have been many studies of business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts on adoption and rejection of product and service innovation. The question remains, what barriers should be overcome in the diffusion process of new services in the business-to-business (B2B) contexts? For example, if you implement a new service concept to your organization to create new value with your customers, what barriers does your organization need to overcome? Few studies to date have revealed the issue. To identify barriers for adoption, this study focuses on the diffusion process of the Agile software development method in Japanese organizations, which is still in progress, and attempts to approach the adoption barriers for service innovation in the B2B context to understand the barriers and leverage point for overcoming them. The Agile software development method is an innovation of software development. But there is a possibility that its diffusion will be stopped due to the resistance of project managers involved in a software development. This may lead service systems to value co-destruction as well.

Implementation of project management approaches as a tool of influence on strategic development of the enterprise

The article examines the development of strategic project management, substantiates the problem of aligning project goals with the development goals of the organization implementing projects. The use of a balanced scorecard for project management and organizational support for project decision-making is proposed. It is suggested to evaluate the project on four groups of indicators: finance (value for investors and project customers in terms of investment efficiency and budget compliance); internal processes (value for key project stakeholders in terms of project management processes); learning and growth (value for the project team and top management in terms of the effectiveness of project activities, the realization of the interests of project team members and their involvement in strategic management processes); clients (value for customers / project initiators in terms of project product characteristics and project management process). Adapting a balanced scorecard to the context of project management makes it possible to establish key performance indicators for project managers and to integrate enterprise development goals with project goals and results. Accordingly, the use of a balanced scorecard in the context of reconciling company development goals and expected project results requires organizational support and the establishment of functional responsibilities, areas of responsibility and communications for each participant in the process. Project strategic status profile, built on the indicators of a balanced scorecard for project management of the enterprise, illustrates the problem areas of coordination of enterprise goals and project management goals and is the basis for developing appropriate management decisions. The construction of such a profile is based on the assessments obtained through an expert survey of owners, top management, functional and project managers. Expert assessments are formed on the basis of information on the level of quantitative and qualitative criteria for project implementation indicators and relevant reporting. The object of research is the processes of strategic project management in the organization. The subject of research is the approaches and tools to ensure and analyze the effectiveness of project decisions in the context of their impact on the strategic goals of the organization. The purpose of the study is to reveal project management as a tool for implementing strategic decisions of the company and substantiate the directions and indicators of effective strategic project management in the organization. The objectives of the study are to study and develop tools to influence project management on the strategic development of the company.

INTERPRETIVE STRUCTURAL MODELING IN EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT

The primary purpose of the current study is introducing a comprehensive approach to identify the relationship among different criteria in Earned Value Management (EVM). EVM is a well-known approach in project management context that can monitor schedule and cost performance indexes in projects simultaneously. The EVM detects current project performances and also predicts at completion costs of the project. In this study, employing Interpretive Structural Modelling, interactions which exist among affecting factors on EVM’s success are determined. First, all of the practical factors on EVM are determined and categorized into four main clusters; then the most effective ones are separated from the clusters; eventually, ISM is used based on eleven ultimate critical criteria. The results demonstrate that “Instability in the construction market” and “Macroeconomic indicators” are the most influencing factors affecting the EVM. Finally, a novel method for enhancing the performance of conventional EVM is presented. The proposed approach would be highly applicable for engineering managers who are willing to promote the current performance of the systems. Most studies have been previously carried out on the applications of the EVM in terms of improving final cost and total duration elapsed whereas there is not any particular study on the EVM issue which has stated the key factors that influence the EVM and lasting effect on the project performance. It should be noted that the proposed approach can be employed through the life cycle of any project particularly in construction projects.

Complex network to enhance characterization analysis in modelling product development process

Nowadays, successful and innovative product development is highly correlated with the company's success and reason for existence. A development process is a major factor influencing cost, timing and quality of product development. It requires additional attention to decisions made about programme, budget, technical and market risks. In this paper a product development process model is proposed in an innovation context and strategy framework of design process and project management. The process modelling is complex network theory based, to improve characterization analysis for product development process modelling. Required concepts for complex process are established to build product development mathematical model, and provide an overview of key definitions and complex networks advanced tools. Finally, a case study for an Algerian electric generator company is carried out to prove the practicality of the proposed model.

Project management resources and outcomes: a confirmatory factor analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on the resource-based view of the firm from strategic management and apply it to a study of competitive advantage in the project management context. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to examine the factors that constitute strategic characteristics of project management resources and outcomes of the project management process.Design/methodology/approachThis study gathered data from 437 North American project management professionals using an existing survey tool from prior research involving a smaller sample.FindingsThe final model derived from CFA demonstrated construct validity, meaning acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. It showed only minor differences from a prior exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The final model consisted of two factors representing valuable project management characteristics, one factor representing rare project management characteristics, one factor representing inimitable project management characteristics, three factors representing organizational support for project management assets, one factor representing project-level performance and one factor representing firm-level performance.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of the study include self-report bias and the use of a panel for data collection.Practical implicationsThis study draws managerial attention to project management characteristics that constitute a source of competitive advantage.Originality/valueThe study validates a survey tool from previous research, reflects few deviations from factor structure of the prior EFA, and sets the stage for future research to elaborate on the conceptual model. It extends understanding of the characteristics of project management assets that lead to a firm’s competitive advantage.

The key aspects of procurement in project management: investigating the effects of selection criteria, supplier integration and dynamics of acquisitions

Paper aims This study aims to identify the key aspects of procurement in the Project Management context and their relation to project success. Particularly, the effects of selection criteria, supplier integration and the dynamics of acquisitions are investigated. Originality This study contributes to the literature by analysing in depth a large sample of articles that deal with procurement in the Project Management context. This study also presents implications for practice by exploring how procurement management affects project success. Research method The methodological approach is a systematic literature review, combining bibliometrics and content analysis. Main findings The results show that academic literature focuses on the dynamics of acquisitions, lacking studies on the spectrum of supplier integration and supplier selection criteria. A strong relationship between the dynamics of acquisitions and project success dimensions could be established. Several insights into this relationship can be pointed out, as the effect of synergy with suppliers on the success dimension related to impact on the team. Implications for theory and practice The study contributes by identifying the relationship between the selection criteria, levels of supplier integration and dynamics of acquisitions with project success. Possible research gaps and trends are presented for future research.

The project manager’s competencies at the mobile context of project management

Different organizations are adopting work mobility. With regard to projects context, mobility changes interaction processes and emphasizes skills required from project managers. Considering this scenario, we carried out a survey by questionnaire with 114 project managers, to investigate how mobility has been changing project management and the inherent project manager competencies in this environment. Triangulation and pattern combination were the basis for the analysis, and results suggest that mobility is benefited by the context of projects, by highlighting that commitment, maturity, experience, and ability to use technologies are critical skills for project managers working remotely.

Swift trust formation in multi-national disaster project management teams

In recent years there has been growing interest in how project management theory can both inform and be informed by disaster response and recovery projects. Addressing the lack of empirical research into how trust forms within such projects, this exploratory study mobilises swift trust theory to investigate the process of trust formation within a multinational disaster project management team formed in response to tropical cyclone Winston in Fiji in 2016. In-depth content analysis of qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with disaster management team members, non-participant observation of the disaster project management teams during the disaster response and analysis of disaster management documentation appear to support the predictions of swift trust theory in relation to the importance of reputation, role and interdependence in building swift trust. However, theoretical predictions around the importance of categorical assumptions, confirmation of assumptions and the leadership role of the contractor did not appear to be supported by our data. It is concluded that while swift trust theory can potentially provide valuable practical and theoretical insights into trust formation in multinational disaster project management teams, it may need to be adapted to more accurately model trust formation in a disaster project management context.

The method of Project Team Formation on the Example of the Ship’s Crew

This article analyzes the existing terminological and methodological personnel management apparatus and as a result, it turned out that the application of the project-oriented management approach leads to the conclusion and indicates that the employment agreement (contract) for the voyage, the ship's crew are all signs of the project, and the project team. It should be noted that shipping companies are management oriented organizations through projects. Despite the absolutely correct conclusion that the minimum crew should be determined on the basis of the conditions for ensuring the safe operation of all ship systems and mechanisms. Specific techniques and methods for calculating the required number of crew not previously represented. The project-oriented context of modern project management in a turbulent environment and the need for appropriate transformations of infrastructure and industry, including the sea. The management activities take into account the individual characteristics of the project team members, due to socio-cultural influences. The project management methodology and team format of the project activity considers human resource management processes in conjunction with other areas of knowledge that should be integrated into processes such as content management, timing, cost, quality, risk, supply, communications. Therefore, it seems quite logical for the authors to refer to “the processes of formation and management of human resources in project teams” on the example of the ship’s crew.

Shared leadership in project teams: An integrative multi-level conceptual model and research agenda

Shared leadership has rarely been studied in the project management context, despite its proven performance-enhancing benefits in other management domains. Based on a systematic review of the salient literature from multiple disciplines, this paper develops a new multi-level conceptual model to advance a holistic understanding of how shared leadership develops and how it may impact individual, team, project and wider organisational performance. The conceptual model draws upon the input-mediator-output-input perspective of systems theory, which is well-established in the general team literature. The new integrative model identifies the potential multi-level antecedents, proximal team functioning outcomes, and the more distal multi-level outcomes of shared leadership based on findings from the shared leadership literature drawn largely from other domains. Potential boundary conditions of the model are identified. A future research agenda is recommended for empirically testing the new multi-level shared leadership model and its different elements in a diverse range of project contexts.

Towards an Ontology Based-Approach for Human Resource Management

Human Resources (HRs) as one of the most valuable asset of any organizations play a crucial role in their success. Within the context of project management, HR Management (HRM) is perceived as an entire knowledge area with defined processes, Tools and Techniques (T&T) in PMBOK 5th Guide. Although this guide shows a strong focus on HRM, it does not illustrate, in a clear way, how to perform each process with the required competencies and the related T&T. Hence, by using only PMBOK processes, the project manager cannot be assisted to select the suitable team according to their skills, also the project team members are not able to interchange their competencies. To address these issues, we propose to use an ontological approach in order to build a common shared representation in the HRM domain. This approach fosters the interoperability among HRs as well as their efficient use of T&T; further it can provide whom using PMBOK a better understanding and guidance for managing HRs with evidence.

Organizational factors influencing project success: an assessment in the automotive industry

Abstract Paper aims Although many researchers have identified important factors for project success, there is no consensus with regard to all the factors that influence project success. This work aims to assess organizational factors that influence project success in automotive firms. Originality Few studies have analyzed the integrated relationship between organizational factors and project success. Research method The study carries out a quantitative survey on a sample of 72 companies. Data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis. Main findings The results show that the variable that most influences project success is ‘organizational culture’, followed by ‘change management’, and ‘top management support’. The results also indicate that a culture of flexibility and a climate that supports innovation tend to positively influence project performance. Implications for theory and practice The findings suggest that it is relevant to focus attention on human resource development, empowerment, and teamwork within the context of project management.

Performance Management Systems for Project Management Offices: A Case-Based Study

Project Management Offices (PMOs) are organizational structures in charge of managing and coordinating several simultaneous projects within companies. Due to the complexity of different projects’ objectives, it’s usual to simplify project indicators and control them by means of the well-known triple constraint or “iron triangle”: scope, cost and time. This approach does not account for the organizational strategy, internal and external stakeholders’ interests, nor other specific indicators. The problems due to the lack of integration caused by this oversimplification are yet amplified in complex project portfolios related to technology development and deployment, since in this kind of scenario the marketing competition demands new features, at lower costs, in no time. These points could be addressed by operations management approaches, such as the Performance Management Systems Design Framework (PMSDF). To identify the viability and relevance in using this method in PMOs, this work adopts a mixed methods research. Is begins with a Systematic Literature Review to better understand performance management routine and tools in PMO. It was followed by meetings with two project management consultants, to identify the best practices, habits and advises, to check the differences between practitioner and academic views. Finally, it was conducted interviews with the PMO Director of a trucks’ manufacturer and a PMO Manager in an agrarian-cattle-breeding cooperative, to verify how such companies measure their PMO’s successes. The last step was to adapt the PMSDF to the project management context, evaluating the PMO operation in a medium-sized software development company and propose the restructuration of its Performance Management System.