Profile of Project Managers' Competencies for Collaborative Construction Projects

Abstract

Several studies have indicated that project managers' competencies contribute to construction project success in a considerable manner. However, these studies have mainly addressed subject of the interest in the context of traditional construction projects. The choice of construction project delivery models is increasingly turning from traditional ones towards the integrated ones (also called collaborative delivery models). Thus, it is imperative to understand how the competency profile for the project managers needs to be developed to support their successful performance in construction projects with collaborative delivery models. To that end, the survey strategy was employed. Then, a self-evaluation questionnaire comprising 60 linguistic statements, representing 30 behavioural competencies, was utilized for analysing the type and frequency of project managers' different behaviours in their everyday work in their current and target states (as is, and as the informant wants it to be in the future). This questionnaire was sent to 33 project managers of relevance in Norway and Finland with a response rate of 73%. The findings present the competency profile of project managers for collaborative construction projects. This competency profile comprises two groups of (i) competencies contributing to the individual performance of the project managers, e.g., trustworthiness, stress tolerance, initiative, optimism, and (ii) competencies contributing to the team performance and dynamics, e.g., conflict management, group capabilities, understanding others. The findings of this study can be insightful for project managers in collaborative construction projects to benchmark their competencies and improve their performance, and for their employers to hire the right project manager.