Project Management Skills Research Articles

Key Factors Employers Look for In Hiring Construction Managers for Public and Private Construction Projects

The construction industry is one of the world's most important economic activities, and research in this area has found a positive correlation between project management skills and construction project success. However, it is becoming more evident that success in the role of a construction manager cannot be attained with a technical skill set alone. Excellent soft skills are also necessary requisites for success. The aim of the paper is to discuss the benefits of project management skills and what skills employers of labour expected when hiring construction managers in the construction industries. In recent years, several construction projects have steadily failed due to engaging incompetent construction managers with no technical and soft skills. This failure has affected the rate of productivity in the construction industry. Several companies have closed due to the poor performance of their construction managers. Despite the construction industry's significant contribution to economic growth in developed and developing countries, there are still great hindrances in construction project productivity due to the poor performance of construction managers. However, this gap significantly delays much-needed productivity gains, as it is difficult to fully overcome the associated disruptions and choose the best remedy to minimize their impacts on every Nation's Economic Development. Therefore, this investigation is required to close these gaps. This study employed a qualitative research methodology. A combination of primary and secondary sources was used to achieve the main research objectives. Interviews were conducted with 8 vibrant employers in the construction industry. The interview question was made open to enable the employers to air their views on the skills they expected construction managers to possess before engaging them to manage a construction business. The interviews were done face-to-face. Each employer was interviewed separately to avoid copied responses. The outcomes of the interview were noted and listed. However, the benefits of possessing those skills demanded by employers were explained. These benefits were discovered through a systematic literature review. The findings from this study will not only benefit all employers of construction managers in the construction industry but will also be beneficial to all other employees in a company who seek career growth and better job opportunities in the future. It will help eliminate the issue of unnecessary company closure and disputes among the project team due to project failure. Both professionals and future college and university graduates, whose intentions are to proceed to the working field after graduation, will also benefit from the findings. The construction industry is still doomed unless it addresses the issues of construction managers’ attributes. The value of teamwork in the workplace is obvious, and it is frequently directly influenced by effective construction managers’ attributes. Effective construction managers help to save money and boost their company’s reputation. Using a technology-knowledgeable construction manager can greatly help improve the project delivery and a good team working environment saves money and time on projects.

On the question of the role of project management in the digital transformation of small and medium-sized businesses: essence and innovative potential

Digital transformation is penetrating all areas of activities. This process is irreversible and poses challenges to businesses. The leading role for the successful digital transformation of small and medium-sized businesses is played by effective project management. The purpose of the article is to study the role of project management in the digital transformation of small and medium- sized businesses, to identify the key issues and the scenario of transformation, to outline the portrait of a project manager. Methods used: analysisб synthesis, graphic methods, the method of establishing cause-and-effect relationships. As a research result, theoretical aspects of project management and trends in understanding its role in the digital transformation of businesses were determined. The key questions for project management are outlined and its scenario is defined. The key skills and qualities of an effective project manager are described. The innovative potential of project management is considered. The scientific novelty of the research consists in clarifying the aspects necessary for effective project management, taking into account the trends in economic and sustainable development. The practical significance of the research results lies in outlining the areas of activity and improving the professional and extra-professional skills of project managers in the process of digital transformation.

About The Author

About The Author

Employability competences through short-term intensive PBL-events in higher education

The article presents a three-day problem based learning (PBL) event taking place as an interdisciplinary, cross-institution, and cross-sector digital learning activity in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC). Students were given an overall realistic task by a builder to solve in interdisciplinary teams consisting of members from the involved institutions, i.e., a university college, a university, and a vocational school. Representatives from the AEC industry acted as consultants and teachers from the involved institutions acted as supervisors. Besides drawing on and enhancing students’ existing disciplinary knowledge and skills, their skills in project management, collaboration, and communication were challenged during the event. Coming from a university with a PBL-model of semester-long project work, our main research interest focused on the university students’ learning experience during this very short PBL learning activity. When studying the event from a work-based learning (WBL) perspective we found that the students’ experiences and competences developed during the course of the event to a large extent could be interpreted as employability competences, thus placing the event as a “transitional” activity between education and a future work-place. Furthermore, we found that the gain from the event was mutual—the industry representatives learned about new digital solutions and programs used in the event. The empirical research was based on qualitative methods involving semi structured interviews (students as well as industry representatives), supplemented with informal conversations, observations, and photo documentation.

Interview 3: Students Create Podcasts for Social Justice in the Classroom

In this interview, you will hear from Dr. Laura Harrison, a professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and Tahmina Sobat, a graduate student who created a collaborative podcast in one of Dr. Harrison’s classes. The podcast highlighted diverse activists’ stories of organizing during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the project helped students connect to each other and community members, learn new technical and project management skills, and recognize their role as knowledge creators.

The Undergraduate RA: Benefits and Challenges for Sociology Faculty and Research Assistants

The undergraduate research assistantship is key in the professionalization of future sociologists. Our study is the first in the social sciences to document benefits and challenges from both faculty and student perspectives. By interviewing 13 undergraduate research assistants (RAs) and 10 faculty in sociology departments at primarily undergraduate institutions, we outline the benefits and challenges of faculty-directed research with undergraduates. We find that students develop practical research, project management, and interpersonal skills while learning about career interests and developing relationships with mentors. RA challenges include repetitive tasks and time management. Faculty benefit from assistance with their work, the opportunity to mentor, and pedagogical feedback. Faculty challenges include communication, undergraduate turnover, and institutional barriers. Comparing these benefits and challenges with the goals and motives of both RAs and faculty, we suggest recommendations for departments and institutions interested in increasing undergraduate engagement in research.

What comprises a successful key account manager? Differences in the drivers of sales performance between key account managers and regular salespeople

Although drivers of the performance of key account management programs have been of great interest to research and practice, research on drivers of sales performance at the individual level of key account managers is scarce. Based on survey data and objective performance data of 1205 key account managers and 5818 salespeople, this study identifies drivers of key account manager's sales performance and differences between the drivers of key account manager's and regular salespeople's sales performance. Most importantly, key account manager's project management skills, use of internal experts, creation and communication of customer value, and their need for achievement reflect positive drivers of sales performance whereas key account manager's use of digital tools diminishes their sales performance. Furthermore, the use of internal experts reflects a more important determinant of sales performance for key account managers than for regular salespeople, whereas project management skills are more strongly related to regular salespeople's sales performance than to key account manager's sales performance. This study provides important implications for the recruitment and training of key account managers.

Moving nursing innovation to prime time through the use of creative partnerships

Nurses are well-positioned to solve many problems in healthcare through engagement in innovation. Support from healthcare organizations to facilitate creative partnerships may accelerate nurses’ ability to innovate and improve job satisfaction. The value of creative partnerships is rooted in the diversity of experiences and skillsets of each project team member. While nurses may be content experts and key stakeholders, they often lack experience with project management, information technology, product development, and other important skills. We describe the use of co-creation approaches in creative partnerships with diverse stakeholders to enhance the ability of nurse-led project teams to build valuable and sustainable products or services.

Effect of project organization elements on the mental health of project management practitioner in AEC projects

PurposeDue to the frenetic and dynamic working conditions ascribed to architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations, enormous research has addressed the poor mental health propensity of project management practitioners (PMPs). However, research has not considered the distant factors related to organizational design causing poor mental health. Therefore, this study addresses the problem by integrating institutional theory, agency theory and resource-based theory (RBT) to explore the relationship between organizational design elements: project governance, knowledge management, integrated project delivery, project management skills and mental health management indicators. Examples of mental health management indicators include social relationships, work-life balance and project leadership.Design/methodology/approachPurposive sampling method was adopted to collect survey data from 90 PMPs in 60 AEC firms in Australia. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilized to test the relationship between the variables.FindingsThe research found that project governance, knowledge management and integrated project delivery are positively correlated to mental health management indicators. However, the research finding suggests that project management skills have a negative impact on mental health management indicators.Originality/valueThe findings offer guidelines to AEC firms on achieving positive mental health management outcomes through concentration on project governance, knowledge management and integrated project delivery. It further calls for a reconsideration of existing project management skills causing poor mental health management outcomes.

Effect of product-based pedagogy on students' project management skills, learning achievement, creativity, and innovative thinking in a high-school artificial intelligence course.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of product-based pedagogy (PBP) on students’ creativity and innovative thinking in artificial intelligence (AI) education. A seven-step model (i.e., phenomenon, problem, plan, prototype, product, presentation, price) in accordance with PBP was proposed, in which the key function of the product as a linkage between creativity and innovation was emphasized. A total of 209 students from a major high school in South China were randomly assigned to a treatment group with PBP and a control group with direct instruction. Results indicated no significant difference was found in students’ learning performance; however, students in the treatment group performed significantly better than the control group in terms of students’ project management skills, creativity, and innovative thinking. This research validates the feasibility and effectiveness of the PBP and highlights its advantages for high-school AI education, which indicates a new direction for cultivating creative and innovative talents.

The Knowledge Work of the Future and the Future of Knowledge Work

Our paper investigates what forms the knowledge work design on a corporate level in the future. The future might be 2025, 2030, or 2035. The methodology includes interviews with researchers working with these issues in Telia and Telenor. These companies make their living from understanding the future of work both on a corporate and societal level. The main finding is that AI and robotics will be more advanced, but management and organizational structure will be the main changes. The work will be done more as distance work and through virtual teams. The management and organization of work through the coronavirus have opened for more work done independent of time and the workplace and in virtual teams. There is also predicted a lack of professionals and all types of employees in the years to come, leading both to compete for talent and increased importance in keeping the employed knowledge workers through internal career pipelines. AI and robotics will not reduce the need for professionals and employees. The steps will be taken towards an integrated digitalization that makes new opportunities for collaboration, communication, and knowledge work. The fundamental knowledge worker will be using more of his working time on significant business issues. The skills needed are technical, information management, knowledge management, project management, collaboration, communication, rhetoric, virtual team, creativity, and green problem-solving skills. There is a corporate need for ethical, cultural, tolerating, and sexual awareness. We may summarize the requirements as creative, sustainable, social, and perception manipulation intelligence. The future knowledge will be complex, and the knowledge worker will handle multiple skills in different situations. The future knowledge work will be dominated by increasingly autonomous workers co-opting automated digital systems to create and capture value. The education might be revamped into a more task-focused education offered through the work-life cycles. The revamping of education will also increase the overall employment, and we will not experience the mass unemployment described in the literature as the result of AI, robotics, and digitalization. We have identified that the literature uses the unit occupation and not the unit tasks for the predicted higher unemployment and gets the misinterpretation of negative consequences. The environmental issues and the climate crisis will be taken very seriously in the years to come. There will be cooperation between the political and corporate economies to do whatever is possible for sustainability in all internal and external processes to work greener and smarter. We will experience sustainability in action driven by a green leadership through a green strategy and green business models giving green services and products, reusing as much as possible, and using as few as possible resources to reduce the CO2 gases. This study concludes that there will be many small positive corporate and societal steps for each year towards 2030, improving the way of living and working together with environmental improvements. The reconstruction of the middle class is also emerging — neither a perfect nor an imperfect world.

Project Manager Skills affecting Construction Projects in Egypt

The research was to explore the relationships between Construction Project manager skills and the performance of projects in Egypt. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship between the project manager skills (Technical Skills, Human skills, Conceptual Skills, Political and Social Skills) and the dimensions of project performance (Project Cost and Project Time). Hard skills include technological abilities, background, industry knowledge, and project experience. That define the tangible portion of a project manager’s resume as the 21st century recognition of project management. Data has been collected from 104 expert engineers who have a good realistic background in the field of construction industry; questionnaire survey is the used method. The results of analysis propose that risk management abilities have a significant association with project cost and time performance. The Egyptian construction sector may use the findings as a guideline to choosing project managers with the ‘suitable’ skills profile or focusing training and development programs on skills crucial for successful projects.

Сross-Border cooperation between Ukraine and Romania: Legitimate Opportunities for Internet Communication

The article assesses the process of cross-border cooperation through the prism of its legitimacies, both institutional – as regional authorities and European groupings of territorial cooperation (EGAP) – and public confidence through the communicative capabilities of official websites. Cross-border cooperation contributes to the stabilization, strengthening of social and territorial development, European integration and amplifies the processes of structural reforms in Ukraine and Romania. With the implementation of decentralisation reform, these processes have intensified significantly in both countries, especially with the use of EGAP. At the Ukrainian-Romanian border, territorial communities are mainly acting as the initiators of the CBC, so they need to be open to cooperation with the state, with Ukrainian and international colleagues, business, the public and residents; the opportunity to learn project management skills to meet their own needs and the needs of the community, primarily through interregional agreements and cross-border projects, which should be significantly facilitated by various forms of CBC, especially EGAP. Traditionally, common citizens request their authorities for the necessary information. Unfortunately, the websites of regional bodies in Ukraine, in contrast to the Romanian ones, are not yet maximally adapted to interactive communication, they do not contain adequate information to support involving the population in CBC. General reports on CBC, implementation of international programs, projects, technical assistance, dispersion of internal control among profile committees, lack of institutional external control for a long time, do not allow proper public control over project implementation or funds usage, which creates distrust in CBC management and gradually delegitimizes them. In the future, we suggest providing effective means of control and responsibility of the parties for failure of programs and projects implementation and opportunities for public control; to strengthen information and communication support with the authorities and EGAP through electronic media and social networks in different languages.

Diagnosing project management in a research center using the current reality tree method / Diagnóstico da gestão de projetos em um centro de pesquisa usando o método atual de árvore de realidade

University research centers must manage projects for technological research that broadens the knowledge frontier as well as deal with industrial partners to foster entrepreneurship and always plan deliveries demanded by funding agencies. The literature addresses the necessity of project management skills and methods to minimize challenges. However, few studies bring the perceptions of the internal stakeholders. This paper analyzed and raised the main challenges of project management in one research center using the Current Reality Tree method through a case study. As a result, it was possible to verify three leading root causes of difficulties on project management, planning and controlling, and communication with funding agencies.

People and Technology - Employee Competency Profile in Industry 4.0

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the impact of Industry 4.0 on employee competencies and labour market changes. It is pursued with the research hypothesis that Industry 4.0 affects how employee competencies are shaped today. The original research was based on expert literature and statistical analysis of reported data. The survey involved 154 representatives of nine sectors. The questionnaire was intended mainly for businesses that employ modern technologies. The relationships were analysed using the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The research leads to the conclusion that the most in-demand competencies in the modern economy are prompt action, logical thinking, team player skills, and ability to change. At the same time, engineering diploma and technical education, project management skills, and ability to work in a multi-generational environment have lost their importance. It has been demonstrated that most sectors preferred similar competencies.

Embedding experiential learning in undergraduate health promotion curriculum.

The experiential teaching method draws on research-based principles of adult education. The integration of academic learning and practice provides students opportunities to increase their knowledge while developing capabilities to meet the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) Core Competencies and Professional Standards. Community Health Promotion is a second-year subject offered in the Bachelor of Health Sciences at La Trobe University. The project-based curriculum, delivered over 12 weeks, consists of theoretical material which students apply through hands-on project planning, implementation and evaluation; projects are carried out on campus. To bridge academic content and project practicalities the Victorian government's Integrated Health Promotion Resource Kit is used as a foundational teaching resource. Students are supported by teaching staff and a project sponsor throughout the project cycle. Assessment tasks comprised of problem definition and priority setting, project planning and critical reflection on project implementation. The experiential learning approach enables students, in a self-directed yet collaborative manner, to develop skills aligned with health promotion competencies. Students were able to safely "experiment" and apply health promotion theory while actively developing project management and partnerships skills, reflecting on their practice and communicating project findings. Students consistently provide feedback articulating the value they place on the purposeful and scaffolded transition of classroom learning to real-life environments which they recognised as building their competencies and enhancing their employability skills. Experiential learning through small-group projects prepares students for the health promotion workforce in a low-risk, high-impact educational setting while contributing to promoting the ethos of a health-promoting university. SO WHAT?: The authentic assessments provide students with the opportunity to develop competency within several domains of the IUHPE Core Competencies and Professional Standards.

Sustainable practices and green competencies

Hospitality industry especially hotels consumes lots of water, energy, generates tons of waste and ultimately leads to environmental degradation. In order to reduce the impact on environment hoteliers should implement and follow the sustainability practices and focus on the competencies related to sustainability. Hotel industry can play an important role towards sustainability of environment.So, it is an utmost and foremost responsibility of the hoteliers to implement sustainable practices in daily routines of their business. Acknowledging this very fact, the present study focuses on two dimensions i.e. Sustainability Practices and Green Competencies and tries to explore to the existing Sustainability practices and Green competencies exercised by category “A” hotels of Kashmir. Semi-structured interviews and checklists have been formulated based on which In-depth interview has been conducted from 20 respondents. The study concluded with the fact that, in order to implement sustainability practices the employees must be competent. The findings also revealed green competencies required for sustainability development that technical skills regarding energy management, energy assessment, Information technology skill, behavioral change and motivation, Communication, Project management Skills, facilitative leadership, ability to grasp legislation, analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills, and understanding of environment and sustainability issues and good IT and general office skills

Critical Factors Influencing the Performance of Highway Projects: An Empirical Evaluation

Highway construction projects have always suffered from cost overruns due to extended project delivery, causing a loss of public funds. Since highways are the backbone of a nation, the purpose of this study is to measure the criticality of the factors that influence the performance of highway projects. A survey instrument was prepared and distributed to 185 project managers. To achieve the aim of the study, exploratory factor analysis was used and the standard factor loading was the criteria to measure the criticality. From the analysis, it was identified that the factors were grouped under four categories: (a) Execution constraints (b) Operational factors, (c) Stakeholder and political constraints, (d) Design Constraints. Further, it was concluded that the complexity of the sub-contractor’s performance, frequent modification in alignment, project design, loopholes in safety, and ambiguities in specifications are the main factors that impact the performance of highway projects. Therefore, it was recommended to develop an efficient project planning methodology which is a continuum of project management skills and tacit knowledge of managing a site which operates efficiently.

Development of Transversal Competences: A Current Challenge in Teacher Education

This study responds to the growing demand to adapt the content and methods of teacher training programs to reflect the rapid emergence of new, nonpareil 21st century professions in the labour market, predominantly due to the information technology revolution. It is clear that future teachers will increasingly be expected to have a wider range of professional teaching skills, but also transversal skills and competences. For this purpose, a Slovak research team at Matej Bel University prepared an experiment by transforming a traditional foreign language CLIL course into a new course Global Encounters in Local Settings, aimed at developing not only pre-service teachers’ multilingual and intercultural competences, but also a variety of other transversal skills and competences (critical thinking, intercultural competence, time management, teamwork, plurilingual and interpersonal communication skills and others). The innovative components in the new course are student-centredness, service learning and the collaboration between domestic and foreign students. GELS pilot teaching was launched in February 2020 and has been repeated during four following semesters (up to December 2021), despite severe pandemic constraints. The author presents some results from the verification of this pedagogical innovation in the teachers’ university training curriculum. It has been tested by three quantitative-qualitative research methods: pre-term and post-term questionnaires, content analysis of students’ seminar work, reflective individual diaries and group reports. Although the results from all of them are briefly stated, this focused on the results from the last mentioned analysis – diaries and group reports. The results of the data analysis show that this innovation has proved to be feasible and effective in achieving an increase in students’ transversal skills, especially project management skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, ICT skills, time and project management, tolerance and flexibility, critical and reflective thinking skills and open-mindedness.

Forming Project Management Skills by Collaborating with Students in Smartsheet

Forming Project Management Skills by Collaborating with Students in Smartsheet