2.3 – L A REALIZACIÓN DEL TRABAJO DE CAMPO

Documenting the career path is an important step in the selection and development of an effective project manager who is equipped to cope with any problem and take a project to a successful completion within all the constraints imposed on the project (Ndhlovu & Weeks, 2013). Carbone and Gholston (2004) contend that a project manager is often selected for their position based on technical ability. They further add that in most cases project managers are then nurtured into project management roles, and the skillset to manage a project are imparted as an afterthought. An increasing number of organisations these days develop dynamic work environments through the use of temporary work forms such as projects and programmes (Holzle, 2010). Yes, research on implication for

employees who work in these transient environment and how to bring some level of permanency to this transient environment is still not there (Aitken & Crawford, 2007). One of the most famous studies of recent times entitled “The Accidental Project

Manager” by Darrell et al. (2010) discovered that project managers are selected based on technical and management competencies and lack the competencies to deliver a

successful project. In order to develop a project management career path that is objective one needs to develop an appraisal system that is able to identify gaps in knowledge or skill and to negotiate performance achievements and facilitate their progress along the career path (Lee-Kelley & Blackman, 2012; Marion et al., 2014). Pinto and Kharbanda (1997) present it very well by saying that,

“Few individuals grow up with the dream of one day becoming a project manager. It is neither a well-defined nor a well-understood career path within most modern organisations. Generally, the role is thrust upon people rather than being sought.”

In a recent study by Marion et al. (2014), they found that out of a population of 100 project managers in the USA they interviewed, most of them worked their way up

through their technical expertise in areas of specialisation such as IT, operations, etc. The organisations they worked for were primarily small and medium sized enterprises. They didn’t start or intend to start their career as a project manager. They accidently ended up there by undertaking several projects in their areas of specialisation. Even their

organisations did not do much for them in terms of developing their project management skills. They primarily took an initiative themselves to improve and ended up acquiring professional qualifications from bodies such as APM and PMI. As many as 78 of these project managers said that their organisation did not provide any guidance in developing them as project managers, but rather after their success in managing projects permanently stationed them in a project management function. This demonstrates a kind of

unorganised and informal attitude towards project management in organisations even today.

Holzle (2010) have also presented a study on project manager career paths and contend that the career path progresses as their dexterity along certain competencies increases. However, most organisations still rely on on-the-job training for project managers. Some organisations have developed some sort of mentoring model for project managers

utilising the expertise of more senior project managers but not many organisations seem to have a formal structure to it. What is also lacking in most organisations is an alignment to all organisational career paths in order to allow for a fair and transparent promotion policy for individuals along the project management career path.

However, in some parts of the world you do see a more defined project management role. This is especially true for large corporations where project management is a key function in the portfolio of their activities. Bredin and Soderlund (2013) have recently published an extensive study on the career path followed by a project manager in Sweden. They have documented the career path for project managers in ten multinational companies. In Saab there are three levels: basic, senior and master. In Ericsson there are five levels: project manager, advanced project manager, senior project manager, master project manager, and principal project manager. For Sandvik there are three levels: project manager, senior project manager and programme manager. In ABB there are four levels: associate project manager, project manager, project manager director, and senior project management director. In TeliaSonera there are four levels: project management

associates, project manager, senior project manager, and senior project director. Skanska has project managers at level 1, 2, 3 and 4. Posten , Volvo Aero, and Scania are three companies that do not have any formal levels in their organisation.

Bredin and Soderlund (2013) have further elaborated on some similarities of all the companies that have a defined career path for project manager. The first major similarity is that all of them have taken the standard professional body competence frameworks as the basis of assessment and modified these frameworks to suit their individual needs. Project Management Institute (PMI) and Association of Project Management (APM) are two such frameworks that have been adopted by most of these organisations. The second major pattern that emerges from this research is that all these organisations assess the

individual’s competencies and the dexterity along different competencies to promote them through their careers. The third pattern is that they assess project complexity and based on the complexity of the project decide what level of project manager expertise is needed on the project to make staffing decisions. Two of them see a transition of project manager into a programme manager at a later point in their careers, but they don’t define programme manager competencies and assume that attaining a high level of project management competency will automatically lead to success in programme management. As Shehu and Egbu (2008) point out that at some point a project manager will transition into the role of a programme manager but that exact boundary of transition is blurry at the moment, and more needs to be done in that area to establish parameters to assess the location of the boundary in order to facilitate the transition of individuals from project management to programme management role. In order to establish that boundary, it is important that we look at the roles of project and programme managers more closely. The next section highlights the differences in the two areas and takes this study further.