Stakeholder impact analysis of infrastructure project management in developing countries : a study of perception of project managers in state-owned engineering firms in Vietnam

Construction projects can involve a diverse range of stakeholders and the success of the project depends very much on fulfilling their needs and expectations. It is important, therefore, to identify and recognize project stakeholders and develop a rigorous stakeholder management process. However, limited research has investigated the impact of stakeholders on construction projects in developing countries. A stakeholder impact analysis (SIA), based on an approach developed by Olander (2007), was adopted to investigate the stakeholders' impact on state-owned civil engineering projects in Vietnam. This involved the analysis of a questionnaire survey of 57 project managers to determine the relative importance of different stakeholders. The results show the client to have the highest level of impact on the projects, followed by project managers and the senior management of state-owned engineering firms. The SIA also provides suggestions to project managers in developing and evaluating the stakeholder management process.

Motivating construction organisations through incentives : a case study for client-side project managers

Client-side project managers face challenges in motivating project organisations to pursue exceptional design and construction performance. One approach to improving the motivation of project organisations is by offering a financial incentive reward for the achievement of voluntary performance standards above the minimum required standard. However, little investigation has been undertaken into the features of a successful incentive system as a part of an overall procurement strategy. In response to a lack of information available to client-side project managers tasked with the initial design of an incentive system, the paper explores motivation under a successful incentive and identifies key learnings for client-side project managers to consider when designing incentives. Our findings are based on the results of a large Australian case study which is interpreted against a conceptual framework based on both economic and psychological perspectives of motivation. The results suggest that motivation towards incentive goals is influenced by the value the project organisations place on the incentive reward as a commercial opportunity to increase their profit margins. However, perhaps more important are the relationship management processes that promote commitment to the project; and pride in the achievement of project goals. In the case study, these processes intensified the direct motivational effect of the incentive reward on offer. The findings also highlight the importance of ensuring that incentive goals and performance measurement processes remain relevant to the organisations throughout a project to continuously encourage motivation under changing project conditions.

Project managers and technical change : curriculum development in strategic technology management

Traditional business approaches do not take account of the rapid technological developments underpinning today's world. Further understanding the role of technology and its efficient management to build and maintain a competitive edge in business can allow project managers to more successfully manage organisations, and to adapt to and capitalise on, today’s rapidly changing environment. Strategic Technology Management links engineering, science and management principles to identify, choose, and implement the most effective means of attaining compatibility between internal skills and resources of an organisation and its competitive, economic and social environment. This paper reviews the rationale and the development of a new Strategic Technology Management subject in QUT’s Master of Project Management program. It discusses recent developments in the area of technology management from an international perspective, provides details of the curriculum developed and discusses the experience of completing two years of teaching the new program.

International review of computer usage and applications by construction project managers

As computer applications become more available—both technically and economically—construction project managers are increasingly able to access advanced computer tools capable of transforming the role that project managers have typically performed. Competence at using these tools requires a dual commitment in training—from the individual and the firm. Improving the computer skills of project managers can provide construction firms with a competitive advantage to differentiate from others in an increasingly competitive international market. Yet, few published studies have quantified what existing level of competence construction project managers have. Identification of project managers’ existing computer application skills is a necessary first step to developing more directed training to better capture the benefits of computer applications. This paper discusses the yet to be released results of a series of surveys undertaken in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and the United States through QUT’s School of Construction Management and Property and the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction at the University of Florida. This international survey reviews the use and reported competence in using a series of commercially-available computer applications by construction project managers. The five different country locations of the survey allow cross-national comparisons to be made between project managers undertaking continuing professional development programs. The results highlight a shortfall in the ability of construction project managers to capture potential benefits provided by advanced computer applications and provide directions for targeted industry training programs. This international survey also provides a unique insight to the cross-national usage of advanced computer applications and forms an important step in this ongoing joint review of technology and the construction project manager.

Project managers’ understanding of stakeholders’ satisfaction

Studies indicate project success should be viewed from the different perspectives of the individual stakeholders. Project managers are owner’s agents. In order to allow early corrective actions to take place in case a project is diverted from plan, to accurately report perceived success of the stakeholders by project managers is essential, though there has been little systematic research in this area. The aim of this paper is to report the fi ndings of an empirical study that compares the level of agreement between project managers and key stakeholders on a list of project performance indicators. A telephone survey involving 18 complex project managers and various key project stakeholder groups was conducted in this study. Krippendorff’s Kappa alpha reliability test was used to assess the agreement level between project managers and stakeholders. While the overall agreement level between project manager and stakeholders is medium, results have also identified 12 performance indicators that have significant level of agreement between project managers and stakeholders.

The unresolved struggles between project managers and functional managers in matrix organizations

Having personal that works in projects but belongs to a functional organization is the way that many companies organized their labor force today. Previous research shows that this implies management contradictions and ambiguities between functional manager and project manager; there are unresolved struggles between these two roles in terms of power, accountability, authority and legitimacy. With this paper we aim to analyze those struggles based on previous research and to generate working hypotheses. We first provide a review of the different matrix organizations focusing on the relation between the functional manager and the project manager. We then review the literature concerning temporary organizations and projects as temporary organizations. We conclude by integrating the findings of these perspectives and by identifying working hypotheses and areas for further research.

Major project managers’ internal and external stakeholder relationships: The development and validation of measurement scales

In this paper, we detail the development of two stakeholder relationships scales. The scales measure major project managers' perceived competence in developing (establishing and maintaining) high quality, effective relationships with stakeholders who are internal and external to their organization. Our sample consists of 373 major project managers from a sub-set of the Australian defense industry. Both the internal stakeholder relationships scale and the external stakeholder relationships scale demonstrated validity and reliability. This research has implications for the interpersonal work relationships literature and the stakeholder management literature. We recommend that researchers test these scales with multiple samples, across different project types and project industries in the future. The stakeholder relationship scales should be versatile enough to be applied to project management generally but are perhaps best suited to major project environments.

Neuro-Fuzzy genetic system for selection of construction project managers

Choosing a project manager for a construction project—particularly, large projects—is a critical project decision. The selection process involves different criteria and should be in accordance with company policies and project specifications. Traditionally, potential candidates are interviewed and the most qualified are selected in compliance with company priorities and project conditions. Precise computing models that could take various candidates’ information into consideration and then pinpoint the most qualified person with a high degree of accuracy would be beneficial. On the basis of the opinions of experienced construction company managers, this paper, through presenting a fuzzy system, identifies the important criteria in selecting a project manager. The proposed fuzzy system is based on IF-THEN rules; a genetic algorithm improves the overall accuracy as well as the functions used by the fuzzy system to make initial estimates of the cluster centers for fuzzy c-means clustering. Moreover, a back-propagation neutral network method was used to train the system. The optimal measures of the inference parameters were identified by calculating the system’s output error and propagating this error within the system. After specifying the system parameters, the membership function parameters—which by means of clustering and projection were approximated—were tuned with the genetic algorithm. Results from this system in selecting project managers show its high capability in making high-quality personnel predictions

The use of risk registers by project managers

The construction industry is widely recognised as being inherent with risk and uncertainty. This necessitates the need for effective project risk management to achieve the project objectives of time, cost and quality. A popular tool employed in projects to aid in the management of risk is a risk register. This tool documents the project risks and is often employed by the Project Manager (PM) to manage the associated risks on a project. This research aims to ascertain how widely risk registers are used by Project Managers as part of their risk management practices. To achieve this aim entailed interviewing ten PMs, to discuss their use of the risk register as a risk management tool. The results from these interviews indicated the prevalent use of this document and recognised its effectiveness in the management of project risks. The findings identified the front end and feasibility phases of a project as crucial stages for using risk registers, noting it as a vital ingredient in the risk response planning of the decision making process. Moreover, the composition of the risk register was also understood, with an insight into how PMs produce and develop this tool also ascertained. In conclusion, this research signifies the extensive use of the risk register by PMs. A majority of PMs were of the view that risk registers constitute an essential component of their project risk management practices. This suggests a need for further research on the extent to which risk registers actually help PMs to control the risks in a construction project, particularly residual risks, and how this can be improved to minimize deviations from expected outcomes.

Using AHP and the IPMA Competence Baseline in the project managers selection process

This paper proposes the joint use of the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and the ICB (IPMA Competence Baseline), as a tool for the decision-making process of selecting the most suitable managers for projects. A hierarchical structure, comprising the IPMA’s ICB 3.0 contextual, behavioural and technical competence elements, is constructed for the selection of project managers. It also describes the AHP implementation, illustrating the whole process with an example using all the 46 ICB competence elements as model criteria. This tool can be of high interest to decision-makers because it allows comparing the candidates for managing a project using a systematic and rigorous process with a rich set of proven criteria.

The impact of unique characteristics of projects and project-based organisations on knowledge transfer

Knowledge has been recognised as an important organisational asset that increases in value when shared; the opposite to other organisational assets which decrease in value during their exploitation. Effective knowledge transfer in organisations helps to achieve and maintain competitive advantage and ultimately organisational success. So far, the research on knowledge transfer has focused on traditional (functional) organisations. Only recently has attention been directed towards knowledge transfer in projects. Existing research on project learning has recognised the need for knowledge transfer within and across projects in project-based organisations (PBOs). Most projects can provide valuable new knowledge from unexpected actions, approaches or problems experienced during the project phases. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the impact of unique projects characteristics on knowledge transfer in PBO. This is accomplished through review of the literature and a series of interviews with senior project practitioners. The interviews complement the findings from the literature. Knowledge transfer in projects occurs by social communication and transfer of lessons learned where project management offices (PMOs) and project managers play significant roles in enhancing knowledge transfer and communication within the PBO and across projects. They act as connectors between projects and the PBO ‘hub’. Moreover, some project management processes naturally facilitate knowledge transfer across projects. On the other hand, PBOs face communication challenges due to unique and temporary characteristics of projects. The distance between projects and the lack or weakness of formal links across projects, create communication problems that impede knowledge transfer across projects. The main contribution of this paper is to demonstrate that both social communication and explicit informational channels play important role in inter-project knowledge transfer. Interviews also revealed the important role organisational culture play in knowledge transfer in PBOs.