Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Project Manager Perspective'

This research studies the competencies of International Development (ID) project managers from their perspectives, taking into consideration the contextual factors and the challenges that they face when managing ID projects. The study adopts a constructionist ontological viewpoint and an interpretivist epistemological philosophical assumption. The nature of the research is exploratory with an inductive approach, using qualitative research method. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with experienced project managers in International Development projects. Template analysis strategy was used to analyse the data. The findings show that contextual factors have a significant influence on the challenges that ID project managers face when managing projects. Contextual factors are operating environment, large network of stakeholders and intangible goals of ID projects. Five challenges were identified as the results of the context, namely stakeholder management challenge, beneficiary needs analysis challenge, the challenge of balancing strategic and operational views, capacity building and training challenge and sustainable funding challenge. To overcome these challenges, seven ID project manager competencies were identified management skills, personal qualities, interpersonal skills, stakeholder engagement skills, capacity building skills, and change management skills. These competencies are found to be interrelated and complementary. While the role and responsibilities of ID project managers were also uncovered during the research, the findings on contextual factors, challenges and competencies help to better understand the ID project manager role and responsibilities. This study makes the contributions from both theoretical and practical point of view. With regards to theoretical contribution, our findings expanded on ID project manager competencies as well as relating them to the context and challenges in ID projects. The role and responsibilities of ID project manager is another theoretical contribution in this study. From a practical point of view, this thesis’s findings would be useful for various organizations who deliver ID projects, particularly human resources management. In addition, it can act as knowledge sharing with ID project managers and help in designing and enhancing educational programmes in ID project management. Overall, this could result in better delivery and overcoming the challenges of International Development projects.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
A diversidade em equipes sob a ótica do gerente de projetos tem como objetivo precípuo estudar a percepção dos gerentes de projeto acerca da diversidade em suas equipes de trabalho, analisando, em particular, o modo como eles lidam com as diferentes perspectivas que um ambiente de projetos oferece. A pesquisa de campo, de caráter qualitativo e exploratório, utilizou o método fenomenográfico, partindo de um paradigma interpretativo que se baseia na compreensão do sentido humano, nas maneiras de enxergar um fenômeno particular e nas idéias dos indivíduos a respeito do mundo a sua volta (MARTON, 1981, 1986). Durante julho e agosto de 2009, foram ouvidos 15 gerentes de projeto de diferentes áreas de atuação, formação acadêmica e experiência. A partir das opiniões dos entrevistados, foi realizada uma revisão de literatura sobre as tipologias de diversidade surgidas: de conhecimento e comportamento. O papel do gerente de projeto e a comunicação foram levantados como fatores atenuantes da diversidade. Diante do referencial teórico e das opiniões dos entrevistados, conclui-se que os gerentes de projeto enxergam, primeiramente, as diversidades técnicas, em detrimento de diversidades mais óbvias à primeira vista, como gênero, raça e etnia. Conclui-se, também, que as diversidades de conhecimento e comportamento são benéficas para o desenvolvimento de projetos e para as equipes envolvidas. Um time diverso é mais rico, mais criativo e inovador, pois alimenta diversas visões e perspectivas que diferentes modelos mentais trazem para a resolução de problemas. Por outro lado, a diversidade dos indivíduos pode ocasionar problemas de comunicação e coesão.
The diversity in teams from the perspective of the project manager has the ultimate goal of studying the perception of project managers on diversity in their work teams, analyzing in particular how they deal with the different perspectives that a project environmental offers. In the field research, of qualitative and exploratory nature, we used the phenomenographic method, starting from an interpretive paradigm based on understanding the human sense, the ways of seeing a particular phenomenon and the ideas of individuals about the world around them (MARTON, 1981, 1986). During July and August 2009 we heard 15 project managers from different areas of expertise, academic background and experience. Based on the opinions of these respondents, we carried out a literature review on the typologies of diversity emerged: knowledge and behavior. The role of the project manager and communication have been raised as mitigating factors of diversity. Given the theoretical referential and the opinions of respondents, it appears that project managers see, first, technical diversities rather than the more obvious differences at first sight, such as gender, race and ethnicity. It also appears that the diversities of knowledge and behavior are beneficial to the development of projects and the teams involved. A diverse team is richer, more creative and innovative, since it gathers various visions and perspectives that different mental models bring to solving problems. On the other hand, the diversity of individuals can lead to problems of communication and cohesion.

Project management involves many different actors. Rather than solely looking at those actors as individuals, the interaction between them should not be forgotten either. This thesis tries to provide a better understanding of one specific type of interaction: the project owner-manager relationship. This relationship is approached as the dyadic interaction between one project manager and one project owner. Previous studies indicate that project owners and project managers depend on one another, but that they can have diverging perspectives as well. The goal of this study is to get a deeper understanding of how these different perspectives can influence the success of the project-owner relationship. In order to achieve this understanding, a multiple case study involving 8 project owner-manager relationships was employed. Both project owners and project managers were interviewed, in order to get closer to a multi-actor perspective. The results show that there are both similarities and differences between the perspectives of these actors. However, a lack of understanding between these perspectives can cause the project owner-manager relationship fail. In the end, the potential effects of this relationship cannot and should not be ignored, as this study shows that it can be the difference between project success and project failure. Therefore, in a world that is ever more dominated by projects, this thesis has multiple practical and scientific implications.

The objective of this study was to investigate IT projects within the Swedish public sector. Furthermore we have looked at the project closure in IT projects. The problem that occurs in this topic is that the projects can run overtime or over budget. In this research we used interviews to conduct the data collection. We have collected data from two public sector organizations – Jönköpings kommun and Domstolsverket, both of these orginzations have a dedicated IT department. Through the methods, theoretical framework and analysis we found many different activities and theories on how to handle project closure in IT. The main subjects that keep coming up when addressing the problems of project closure are communication and planning. The responsibilities of the project manager are investigated and the focus is on closing an IT project. A descriptive diagram has been created to show what is important during and before project closure

Background: Usage of temporaries in contemporary business is increasing due to demand for agile and efficient way of doing business. This trend has been rising especially when turning into 21stcentury. Growing group of temporary workers in different industries being mobile and under different circumstances than regular full-time workers. One professional group working with clients in temporal terms is consultants hired as project managers to lead customer projects in project-based organizations. These project managers switch context between businesses and try to adapt as soon as possible to new environments. The paper uses concept of liminality as a metaphor to describe these passages between projects which starts identity work and sensemaking process in individual. Purpose of Thesis:  The purpose of this thesis was to study how project managers cope with liminality using sensemaking and identity work as a point of view. Methodology: This is a qualitative cross-sectional study conducted through semi-structured interviews in order to gather primary data for further analysis and findings. The empirical data was gathered from a Finnish professional service company and consisted ten interviews of consultant project managers. Findings: The study presents a four-field matrix forming project manager archetypes as embodiments of variation how consultant project managers deal with liminality. Although, the group of people in the sample can be perceived homogeneous, it turned out that it contained heterogeneous characteristics regarding the research scope. The main differences found are illustrated through technical or social approach toward work, and whether sensemaking processes occurred in individual or collective manner. Therefore, the study was able to create four different form of archetypes: the realist, the connector, the performer and the moderator.

The construction sector is one of the most important industries for the economy in Sweden. Between 2010 to November of 2020, there has been an increase in employment in the construction industry by 35.4 percent. In 2019 the Swedish construction sector was valued at EUR 53.3 billion, where the construction sub-sector makes up 47.6 percent (European Construction Sector Observatory - Country profile Sweden, 2020).  The construction industry is a fundamental part of society, whereas labor productivity, which represents the quantity of work performed per hour (Park 2006), is a vital element in the process of construction. Gunduz et al. (2020) state that labor consumes a significant amount of cost in construction projects, thus labor productivity is a determinator of cost optimization i.e., the process of making something as good or effective as possible (Cambridge Online Dictionary, n.d.). The benefit of productivity is seen as reduced construction time and cost (Fox, Marsh & Cockerham, 2010). Moreover, a lack of effective management activity towards construction resources can potentially decrease labor productivity. Thus, the familiarity of project managers with labor productivity factors is of major importance (Shehata & El-Gohary, 2011) and contributes to project success (Gunduz & Abu-Hijleh, 2020).

The acceleration of globalisation has forced companies to cope with its propulsion in order to become more competitive and internationalised, an internationalisation that creates the importance of knowing how to manage global and virtual teams (GVT). The knowledge in the area today has shown to be vague, generalised and hard to grasp, especially for the unexperienced GVT-project manager. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to study whether the literature regarding how to manage a GVT corresponds with the perceptions in practice and how these findings can contribute to a more efficient project management approach. This study is examined using a qualitative method based upon literature and semi-structured interviews. This foundation is used to provide a deeper understanding of the subject as well as it puts this research questions into the proper context. The interview respondents are from the same organisation, however, from offices located in four different countries. The result shows that there are different perspectives on how GVTs should be managed efficiently, and that different leadership preferences exits. Furthermore, there exists a lot of possibilities, but also challenges that must be coped with in order to reach the team’s full potential. These challenges are connected to the virtual work settings and practical problems as well as the team's heterogeneity and communication structure. It was found that it is important to consider the purpose of the collaboration in order to strategically plan for its initiation and execution.
Globaliseringens acceleration har tvingat företag att hantera sin framdrift för att bli mer konkurrenskraftiga och internationaliserade, en internationalisering som vidare leder till vikten av att veta hur man ska hantera globala och virtuella team (GVT). Kunskapen i området idag har visat sig vara vag, generaliserad och svår att ta till sig, särskilt för den oerfarna GVT-projektledaren. Syftet med detta examensarbete är därför att studera huruvida uppfattningen om hur man ska hantera GVT skiljer sig mellan litteratur och i praktiken samt hur dessa upptäckter kan bidra till ett mer effektivt projektledningssätt. Denna studie undersöks med en kvalitativ metod baserad på litteratur och semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Grunden används sedan för att få en djupare förståelse av ämnet såväl som den sätter rapportens frågeställningar i rätt sammanhang. Intervjurespondenterna är från samma organisation, dock från kontor i fyra olika länder. Resultatet visar att det finns olika perspektiv på hur GVT ska ledas effektivt och att olika ledarskapspreferenser existerar. Dessutom finns det många möjligheter, men också utmaningar som måste hanteras för att nå teamets fulla potential. Dessa utmaningar är kopplade till virtuella arbetssätt och praktiska problem samt teamets heterogenitet och kommunikationsstruktur. Det konstaterades att det är viktigt att överväga syftet med samarbetet för att strategiskt planera för dess initiering och genomförande.

Background: During the last decades there has been a rapid increase in the desire of being more flexible and responsive, which has paved the way for Agile Project Management – APM. As a consequence of implementing APM into environments previously defined as traditional, it has opened up a discussion of merging APM with Traditional Project Management – TPM. This combination of methodologies is referred to as Hybrid Project Management – HPM, whose aim is to leverage benefits from both APM and TPM. Purpose: Prior research has failed to keep up with this trend. Those that have shed light on this phenomenon have failed to realize the differences between IT and non-IT sectors. With this in mind, and the call for including managers’ perspective on HPM, this study has investigated project managers’ experiences and perceptions of factors that influence hybrid project success in physical product development. In order to address this purpose this study has also investigated how project managers perceive project success. This was done since one must first determine what constitutes project success in order to identify what factors that could bear a potential influence on it. Method: From an interpretivist philosophical standpoint this, exploratory and inductive, study has been carried out through semi-structured interviews with experienced project managers within HPM. Inspired by Grounded Theory, this study has employed purposive sampling and analyzed the data through a grounded analysis technique. Conclusion: This research has successfully identified a range of various factors that influence hybrid projects’ success. Based upon this, a model exhibiting the factors influencing hybrid projects in physical product development could be constructed, as well as a model depicting how project managers perceive hybrid project success. It was found that there is a constant tension between the TPM and APM when merging the two. Instead of identifying one way to optimize the hybrid project, it is more or less about managing this balance between APM and TPM practices. It was also found that project success is a dynamic and subjective concept, rather than the static and additive concept that is often illustrated by contemporary research.

This paper focuses on leadership problems and possibilities regarding creativity in a specific R&D organization. This is done with the help of a model consisting of four domains of special interest for R&D leaders. A survey in the form of personal interviews was conducted with leaders and staff members of two R&D sections in the organization. The analysis pointed towards problems on work load and stress issues. Furthermore the organizational structure of the two sections provided a discussion on optimal structural build‐up in order to maximize creativity. Trust issues arose because of the apparent use of control by upper management as described by lower level leaders and the employees. Indications showed that the trust issues put up obstacles for learning and dealing with failure. On the other hand the relationships between section management and staff were perceived as good. Also the ground works of a good creative work was laid with the trusting relationships between fellow professionals within the group.

Project management is as much art as it is science. Competence of project managers is receiving increasing interest as more organisations accept that project performance has an impact on organisational performance. Scholars and practitioners of project management tend to agree that while the technical aspects of project management are important, it is the behavioural competencies, or soft skills, of project managers that are required for success ? now and in the future. This study set out to explore the expected evolution of the behavioural skills and competencies of the project manager over the next decade. Secondary objectives of the study were to establish if perceptions differ amongst the respective demographic groups, the importance of leadership skills and how identified future behavioural competencies are addressed in current job profiles for project managers. The research study began in the literature where projects and project management was introduced followed by an exploration of some of the trends and perceptions expected to impact on project management in the future. Projects of the future will be strongly influenced by technology with complexity and uncertainty as common themes. Leadership and flexibility will be key for project managers to survive in such a dynamic, hyper–connected environment. A thorough literature study was conducted into the behavioural competencies of project managers especially with respect to the most widely used project management bodies of knowledge. The concept of competency was defined and a number of models of competency were presented. Soft skills relating to project managers were discussed including emotional intelligence which has received much attention recently. A comparison was made of the behavioural competencies of project managers as addressed in the IPMA International Competence Baseline 3.0, the APM Body of Knowledge and the PMI Body of knowledge. Concluding the literature study, the fifteen behavioural competencies from the IPMA International Competence Baseline were discussed drawing on insight from the literature. An empirical study was completed with the aid of a new questionnaire designed using the behavioural competencies contained in the IPMA International Competence Baseline 3.0 as constructs. The questionnaire survey explored the perceptions of members in a South African project management organisation regarding the evolution of the importance given to the identified behavioural competencies. Analysis of the responses showed the questionnaire to be reliable and valid. Respondents indicated that they expect the following project manager behavioural constructs to grow in importance in the future: Efficiency, Leadership, Creativity, Openness and Engagement and Motivation. Respondents expect the following behavioural constructs to be less important in the future: Ethics, Values Appreciation, Reliability, Conflict and Crisis and Self–control. Structured interviews conducted to validate the survey results highlighted only that Leadership is an area that is expected to take on more importance for project managers in future. The interviews produced similar expectations to the literature regarding the future challenges for project management regarding complexity, uncertainty and the rate of change. A review of Project Manager job profiles yielded that generally behavioural competencies for project managers are not comprehensively addressed with more attention required and to utilise research as a basis. Proficiency requirements and assessment of proficiencies remains a major challenge that must be addressed by organisations in future. Conclusions regarding the findings of the research study were presented and recommendations for organisations and interested parties given. The research study was evaluated opposite the primary and secondary objectives with the conclusion that both were achieved. Finally, recommendations for further research into the behavioural competencies and related topics were proposed.
Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The commitment and retention of employees in the construction industry has been a major concern for a considerable period of time. This problem is exacerbated by the inability of the industry to attract, develop, motivate, and retain employees. These factors have been identified as relating to the communication of employees' expectations in terms of the job role. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of line managers' communication practices on commitment and retention through the psychological contracts perspective of subordinate construction and project managers. To achieve this aim, the study draws from two well established theories: the concept of the psychological contract which is based on the theory of reciprocity, and Luhmann's social system theory which views communication as the elementary process constituting the social domain. These theories form the basis of exploring the conditions under which perceived employment obligations of line managers, by subordinate construction managers and project managers, have potential impact on their commitment and retention. A selection of construction and project managers in Nigeria and the UK, through an extensive two-stage Delphi study, provided a list of the most significant items of information subordinates in their positions required from line managers in order to undertake their job. The alignment of the expected information versus provided information was contrasted using a Wilcoxon Singed Rank Test which revealed a deficiency in the level of actual provided information by line managers. A further analysis of the perception of the "Communication Style" and the "Nature of communication" and the impact of these communication practices on subordinates commitment and retention show that line managers' communication practices significantly impact commitment and retention of subordinates' in the construction organisations. The findings revealed that organisational commitment and high commitment cannot be achieved without line managers aligning their communication practices with subordinates' expectations to do the job. Specific models are developed to provide a summative overview of line managers' communication practices which impact commitment and retention of their subordinates.

There is a lack in research on the perspectives of different managerial roles on data about software projects in software analytics tools, such as the perspectives of chief financial officers (CFOs), chief executive officers (CEOs) and compliance officers. Today, software analytics tools are mainly developed to address the needs of technical stakeholders such as developers, but research shows that there exist potentials of expanding this technical users’ scope of focus to also include higher level stakeholders, such as managers. The goal of this study is to explore what managers working in software development organizations consider to be useful data to have about software projects in software analytics tools, as well as examining how they want data about software projects to be presented to them in such tools. This study was done in four steps. First, a literature review was conducted. Second, a questionnaire was conducted with four CFOs, one CEO and one compliance officer working in six different Swedish software development organizations. Third, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three CFOs, one CEO and one compliance officer working in five different Swedish software development organizations. Fourth, a visual prototype simulating a software analytics tool was constructed based on the data gathered from the interviews. The result of this study shows that abstraction, limitation, and visualization of data about software projects, as well as presentation of useful data in software analytics tools that support the work tasks of managers, is helpful in addressing the perspectives and views of the target group.

Research in risk awareness has been relatively neglected in the health informatics literature, which tends largely to examine project managers’ perspectives of risk awareness; very few studies explicitly address the perspectives held by senior executives such as directors. Another limitation evident in the current risk literature is that studies are often based on American data and/or they are restricted to American culture. Both factors highlight the need to examine how senior executives (i.e., directors) who oversee or direct eHealth projects in Canada perceive risk awareness. This research explores and discusses the perspectives of risk awareness (i.e., identification, analysis, and prioritization) held by directors and project managers who implement Canadian eHealth projects. Semi-structured interviews with nine directors and project managers uncovered six key distinctions in these two groups’ awareness of risk. First, all project managers valued transparency over anonymity, whereas directors believed that an anonymous reporting system for communicating risks had merit. Secondly, most directors emphasized the importance of evidence-based planning and decision making when balancing risks and opportunities, an aspect none of the project managers voiced. Thirdly, while project managers noted that the level of risk tolerance may evolve from being risk-averse to risk-neutral, directors believed that risk tolerance evolved toward risk-seeking. Directors also noted the importance of employing risk officers, a view that was not shared by project managers. Directors also believed the risk of too little end-user engagement and change management was the most important risk, whereas project managers ranked it as the least important. Finally, when directors and project managers were asked to identify and define the root cause(s) of eHealth risks, directors identified the complexity of health care industry, while project managers attributed it to political pressure and a lack of resources where eHealth projects are concerned. This research proposes that the varied perspectives of risk awareness held by directors and project managers must be considered and integrated to properly align expectations and build partnerships for successful eHealth project outcomes. Understanding risk awareness offers a means to systematically identify and analyze the complex nature of eHealth projects by embracing uncertainties, thereby enabling forward thinking (i.e., staying one step ahead of risks) and the ability to prevent avoidable risks and seize opportunities.
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碩士
國立成功大學
工業與資訊管理學系碩士在職專班
102
Cloud technology has gradually changed people's life. Although there are already information systems, still need to integrate Enterprise Information Portal, Social Networking, Cloud Computing, E-commerce, Mobile devices, and Knowledge Management Systems and use data mining and data warehousing to translate the tacit knowledge into the explicit knowledge, then combined with the business intelligence to meet the data of future networking and big data. Therefore, in this research focus the tacit knowledge management of knowledge management. To explore the tacit knowledge about personal experience and implicit rules of business process in internal and external organization. Then it can accelerate the conversion efficiency of knowledge spiral and looking for enhancing the key of enterprise core capabilities. In this study used three factor are people (project team), information of business process (tacit knowledge) and technology (social networking website of cloud computing) to explore the use of e-business social networking website for the project team(ex. SAP ERP)to save the experience of project what benefit is. Data collection will take advantage of the Balanced Scorecard and combined with the PDCA (quality management cycle) of project process and Knowledge management processes to integrate data of three dimensions. We use AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) to identify performance indicators on the social networking website of cloud computing can be quantified. In order to manage performance evaluation of knowledge management of project team and confirm the gap of knowledge management. So, we can make some suggestions and reference for enterprises to establish a timely and balanced environment of knowledge. The results show if the enterprise has knowledge management system and project members often use social networking websites of cloud computing who wishes to share the experience of the project is higher. In this study, we expect if new knowledge is created and the project team can quickly reach a consensus and staff can learn related knowledge. We hope that the way can enhance operational core capabilities allow enterprises to innovative products and business service model to let company can be exist and sustainable development forever.