An examination of assistant professors’ project management practices

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose-The purpose of this research was to identify factors that influence the use of project management in higher education research projects by investigating the project management practices of assistant professors. Design/methodology/approach -Using a grounded theory approach that included in-depth, semistructured interviews with 22 assistant professors across 13 US states, this study uncovered how participants used project management processes and tools and factors that enabled, motivated, and/or inhibited the use of project management in research projects. Findings -From the nearly 200 codes that were documented, 11 major categories emerged that led to the development of a grounded theory appropriate for participants of this study.Research limitations/implications -The primary limitation of this study was the sampling strategy (purposive and convenience sampling), which may limit broad generalizability. To ensure that the sampling strategy enabled a grounded theory to emerge from the data, theoretical sampling was used. Additional research is needed to describe the experiences of professors in other disciplines as well as others who are directly involved in research projects. Originality/value -While a single study of this topic cannot provide a universal basis for explaining how project management is used in higher education, this study suggests that there are several ways that professors and universities can increase the likelihood of research project success. Training in project management, broader and deeper research support services, and systematic processes to engage assistant professors in research support services are three recommendations for improving how professors manage their research projects.

Project Management Competences by Teaching and Research Staff for the Sustained Success of Engineering Education

“…PM tools and techniques can be applied to higher education sector [109,110], helping to affront challenges and barriers and improving its efficiency. If university projects are managed by PM methods to teach [111,112], research [113,114] and transfer [115,116], then the application of PM competences by the TRS can promote success in achieving objectives, providing value and generating synergies among institution members, universities, companies and social agents.…”

Factores que inciden en la gestión de proyectos de investigación científica

“…El uso de procesos y herramientas de gestión de proyectos permite que un proyecto de investigación cumpla con mayor probabilidad sus objetivos (Rodríguez y Caurcel, 2019) dentro de los parámetros de alcance, tempo, costo y calidad. Además, se sugiere la capacitación en gestión de proyectos por parte de los profesores, ampliar los servicios de apoyo a la investigación disponibles para los profesores, y procesos sistemáticos para involucrar a los profesores asistentes en servicios de apoyo a la investigación, con la finalidad de transformar las prácticas de gestión de proyectos de investigación de los profesores (Alpert y Hartshorne, 2013).…”