The project managers’ challenges in a projectification environment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the main challenges that project managers (PMs) face in the current projectification environment. Design/methodology/approach This research was conducted by means of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The participants in the study were 15 PMs and 57 project team members. A content analysis of the data was conducted by an inductive approach to determine the strengths and weaknesses that the PMs and project team members perceived. Findings The research reveals interesting insights, such as the identification of emerging challenges for the PMs of today, which include dealing with communications issues, motivating project team members, providing leadership and increasing team members’ emotional management and confidence. Research limitations/implications The main limitation is the size and location of the sample, which represents the points of view of 15 Spanish PMs and the members of their work teams and sets aside the cultural aspects. Originality/value This new era is changing how organizations and managers must deal with people management, evolving toward more flexible and engaging leadership styles. This paper helps to provide new insights concerning the emerging challenges and needs of PMs, while integrating team member’s perceptions.

Identifying Risks for Better Project Management between Two Different Cultures: The Chinese and the Spanish

“…Most of the risks identified belong to the area of personal relationships (risks 1 to 10 and 14 to 20). This is in line with the new proposals within project management in which more importance is given to the project manager's personal competences [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. In fact, the Project Management Institute's own PMP (Project Management Professional) certification is adapting its exams to give more weight to this part.…”

“…Management skills have always been considered to be an essential determinant of success in every project [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. However, the influence of globalization and cross-cultural interaction in recent years has caused these skills to become critical.…”

“…Some authors have also noted that it is required to consider other aspects as sustainability [14][15][16][17][18] and the relationship between sustainability and different areas of knowledge of project management [2,19]. Other authors highlight the importance of project manager competences in achieving project success [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Four images of projectification: an integrative review

“…Research adding pixels to this image often refers to projectification in terms of personal or individual projectification, or discusses the actions of the individuals involved in project-based work. Some examples of research that have engaged is such type of research are Ekstedt ( 2009), Jensen (2012), Packendorff and Lindgren (2014), Cicmil et al (2016), Jensen, et al (2016, 2017, Kalff (2017), Ballesteros-S anchez et al (2019), Lunkka et al (2019 and Berglund et al(2020).…”

Carrot or stick? The impact of paternalistic leadership on the behavioral integration of top management teams in megaprojects

“…First, the importance of leadership to an organization cannot be overestimated. The excellent performance of a team largely hinges on an effective leadership style (Zheng et al, 2019;Ballesteros-S anchez, 2019). Therefore, leadership research has a crucial role in research on the organizational behavior of megaprojects (Lin et al, 2018a;Sankaran, 2018).…”