Project Manager Development Paths

By Liselore Havermans and Chantal Savelsbergh

This study has investigated the professional development of project managers through interviews, surveys, and personality inventories from a sample of practitioners.Results from the research reveal how learning experiences as well as personal characteristics comport with professional development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Project Management Institute
• Release date: Oct 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781628251173

Book preview

PROJECT MANAGER DEVELOPMENT PATHS:

WHAT PROJECT MANAGERS LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCES AND WHAT INFLUENCES THEIR LEARNING

Liselore Havermans, PhD

Assistant Professor of HRM-OB

VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Chantal Savelsbergh, PhD

Assistant Professor of Human Resource Development and Organizational Behavior

Open University of the Netherlands

Peter Storm, PhD

Director

Kennis&Co, the Netherlands

Henk Broekema, MSc

Business Psychologist

Advanced People Strategies Ltd., United Kingdom

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Havermans, Liselore.

Project manager development paths : what project managers learn from their experiences and what influences their learning/Liselore Havermans, PhD, Assistant Professor of HRM-OB, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Chantal Savelsbergh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human Resource Development and Organizational Behavior, Open University of the Netherlands, Peter Storm, PhD, Director, Kennis&Co, the Netherlands, Henk Broekema, MSc Business Psychologist, Advanced People Strategies Ltd., Great Britain.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-62825-066-6 (alk. paper)

1. Project management. I. Title.

HD69.P75H3787 2014

658.4’04--dc23

2014030486

ISBN: 978-1-62825-066-4

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to the Project Management Institute (PMI) for providing financial support for this project and for their support and guidance. We are also thankful for the skillful and much appreciated guidance provided by Dr. Martina Huemann of the ProjektManagement Group.

We thank René van Arnhem, Peter Bos, Wendy van Nieuwenhuizen, and Joost Stokbroekx for their enthusiasm and dedication while executing the pre-study on the expectations of line managers. Together they provided us with an example in true team spirit.

We thank Ties de Ruijter, VU University Amsterdam, for his meticulous assistance in coding the interviews.

Finally, we are obliged to the members of the Sounding Board—Monica de Graaf, Ella Nanninga, Karin Rosch, Jan Koster, and Henk Lemans—for their curiosity and guidance and for their willingness to share with us their extensive experience in the human resource management of multi-project organizations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

WHY INVESTIGATE PROJECT MANAGERS’ LEARNING EXPERIENCES?

WHAT WAS INVESTIGATED AND HOW?

WHAT ARE THE MAIN RESULTS?

HOW CAN RESOURCE MANAGERS AND PROJECT MANAGERS APPLY THESE RESULTS?

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

THIS RESEARCH PROJECT

STRUCTURE OF THIS REPORT

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION

BECOMING AND BEING A PROJECT MANAGER

Becoming a Project Manager

Information Received About Career Path

Being a Project Manager

LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND DEVELOPMENT PATHS

What Do Project Managers Need to Learn (According to Existing Theory)

Categories of Learning and Development

Support for Learning and Development

Individual Differences

THE CURRENT STUDY

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD

GENERAL APPROACH

SAMPLE OF PROJECT MANAGERS

DATA-GATHERING AMONG PROJECT MANAGERS

Interviews

Survey

Personality Inventory

ANALYSIS

Transcription, Coding, and Analysis of the Interviews

Survey Analysis

Personality Survey Analysis

CHAPTER 4: A PRELUDE: THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE LINE MANAGER

LINE MANAGERS: MANAGERS OF PROJECT MANAGERS

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

MAIN FINDINGS

CHAPTER 5: WHY AND HOW DO PEOPLE BECOME PROJECT MANAGERS?

INTRODUCTION

RESULTS

Becoming a Project Manager

Information Received About Career Path

What Do You Find Attractive in the Job of Project Manager?

What Do You Find Unattractive in the Job of Project Manager?

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 6: WHAT DO PROJECT MANAGERS LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCES, AND WHEN?

INTRODUCTION

ANALYSIS OF CONTENT OF LEARNING

LESSONS LEARNED, COMPILED

COMPARISON

CONCLUSIONS

CHAPTER 7: HOW DOES THE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING OF PROJECT MANAGERS TAKE PLACE AND WHO INFLUENCES THEIR LEARNING?

INTRODUCTION

Nature of the Learning Experience

Context of the Learning Experience

Who Influences the Learning from Experiences of Project Managers?

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CHAPTER 8: PERSONALITY INFLUENCES ON PROJECT MANAGERS’ LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

RESULTS

Type of Situations Project Managers Learn From

Type of Lessons Project Managers Learn

Personality and the Tendency to Engage in Learning and Development

DISCUSSION

CHAPTER 9: LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND TEAM CULTURE

PELLERIN’S TEAM BUILDING MODEL

ANALYSIS

CONCLUSIONS

DISCUSSION

CHAPTER 10: DEVELOPMENT PATHS

INTRODUCTION

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS

CHAPTER 11: CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION

PERSPECTIVE OF LINE MANAGERS

MOTIVATION OF PROJECT MANAGERS

WHAT, WHEN, AND HOW PROJECT MANAGERS LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCES

WHO AND WHAT INFLUENCED THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECT MANAGERS?

PERSONALITY INFLUENCES ON PROJECT MANAGERS’ LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND TEAM CULTURE

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEVELOPMENT PATHS OF PROJECT MANAGERS

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR APPLICATION IN PRACTICE

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

APPENDIX B: LIST OF CODES

APPENDIX C: SURVEY

REFERENCES

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND CONTACT DETAILS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Why Investigate Project Managers’ Learning Experiences?

Project managers learn by doing. They derive their knowledge and insights about their job mostly from their experiences in practice. This phenomenon, which differentiates project managers from their colleagues in other specialist management areas (other than general management), can be explained on several grounds:

Many project managers do not fulfill their responsibilities on a permanent basis. It is something they do alongside another job position. It is this primary, more permanent, position for which they have been educated and trained.

But even among project managers who take the job on a permanent basis, there are many who had not purposely looked for this role when entering the job market. They happened to roll into it at some stage in their career. As a consequence, their formal education in project management is limited.

Project management as an occupation is not yet a recognized profession (Zwerman, Thomas, & Haydt, 2004). Although there are widely recognized bodies of knowledge, the application of this knowledge is not at all standardized and normalized. Those who direct project managers in the execution of their job generally often use their own personal norms and standards about what constitutes good practice in project management. As a consequence, project managers have to re-adapt themselves frequently to the expectations of a new principal in a particular project. This they can only learn in practice.

If project managers learn mostly by doing, then the question of what they actually learn and how this learning takes place arises. In the interest of the occupation and of the project managers themselves, it is important to know the answers to these questions. As long we don’t have the answers, it remains difficult to:

Align the intended career paths with the actual development paths of project managers.

Support the development of project managers with adequate and just-in-time training programs or with appropriate coaching and mentoring.

Enable sharing of knowledge among project managers.

Unfortunately, the central question of this investigation—what project managers learn from their experiences and how they learn it—has not been the subject of empirical research as yet. This is why the current investigation has been executed.

What Was Investigated and How?

The leading questions of this investigation are:

What do people like and dislike about being a project manager?

How do they get involved in the job?

Which experiences have a significant influence on the way they practice their job?

What did they learn from these experiences?

How did they learn and who influenced their learning?

Does personality have an influence on what project managers learn from their experiences?

To find answers to these questions, 31 experienced project managers were interviewed. The sample included male and female project managers from three different industries and two different countries. The interviews were recorded and transcribed word by word. In addition, all project managers in the sample completed a personality test and answered a short survey. To analyze the content of the interviews, the answers were coded using an extensive