The Role of Project Management Soft Skills in Increasing Project Success
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Date
2017-10
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
As the world economy shifts towards an increasingly globalised market, the degree of competition becomes a more significant challenge which organisations face. Within the construction sector, these effects can be further magnified due to the complexity and the heavily demanding nature of the industry. Construction projects are led by project managers who perform the role of a leader of the project and the involved team as a whole. In order to create a market edge to enable organisations to survive heavy competition, it becomes increasingly crucial to explore how project managers can develop their team management competencies, and enhance their team’s performance to achieve the ultimate goal of completing a project successfully.
The prospects of project success are directly related to the efficiency of the people involved in the team that will deliver that particular project. Thus, enhancing the people management skillset of the project manager would enable him or her to lead the team more effectively and enhance this positive effect. These project management ‘soft’ skillsets include interpersonal as well as leadership skills. In order to measure the influence of project management soft skills, it is crucial to define project success. Thus, project success is explored as the second variable which is a measure of several interactive criteria that supersede the traditional view of the iron triangle of time, cost, and quality as a single assessment tool.
The following research studies the phenomenon of various project management soft skills which include interpersonal and leadership skills, and it explores the definition and measurement criteria of project success. The presented research is followed by a quantitative analysis through the conduction of a survey amongst practitioners within the construction industry in the UAE. The aim is to establish and prove that effective project management soft skills can increase the prospects of a successful construction project in the UAE.
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Keywords
project management, people management, soft skills, United Arab Emirates (UAE), emotional intelligence, project success, leadership, construction