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DoProjectmanagementcompetenciesinfluencetheprojectperformance?AnInsightatPhilipsHealthcare

ThesisReportMST-80433(MScThesisManagementStudies-33ECTS)

Supervisor:ProfdrJacquesTrienekens(WUR,Managementstudiesgroup)Co-Supervisor:DrEmielFMWubben(WUR,Managementstudiesgroup)

Author:NitinChandra(920210605080)

MScprogram:Management,EconomicsandConsumerStudiesSpecialization:Management,InnovationandLifeSciences

WageningenUniversityandResearchCentreSeptember2017

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Abstract

Projectmanagementisplayinganimportantroleinchangingbusinesslandscapes.Thepurposeofproject

management is to help in the design and development of a project and bring about structure in the

executionofaproject.Projectmanagersareimportantstakeholderswhosetexpectationsfortheproject

anddrivetheproject.Inordertosetexpectationsfortheproject,theprojectmanagerneedstobewell

equippedtocometoacommonunderstandingwithallthestakeholdersinvolvedandalsoagreeonthe

scopeoftheproject.Hence,theneedforcompetenciesforprojectmanagers.Competenciesencompass

behaviouralandcognitiveattributesalsocalledashardandsoftskillsrespectively.Thesecompetencies

are important to drive project success. Thus, this study aims to improve project performance by

investigatingtheinfluenceofprojectmanagementcompetenciesontheKPIsofprojectperformance.An

empirical research was conducted at Philips and the research units investigated were the project

managers in themarkets of India and China. Thesemarketswere chosen as they generated a lot of

revenueand thenumberofprojectmanagerswere large innumber. Theempirical results revealeda

significantrelationshipbetweenhardskill-scopemanagementandsoftskill-negotiation.Theresultsalso

showeda significant relationshipbetweenhard skill-human resourcemanagementand soft skill-team

building.However,therewasnosignificantrelationshipbetweenbothhardandsoftskillsandtheKPIs

basedoncost,timeandquality.RegressionanalysiswasalsoconductedwithKPIsbasedoncost,timeand

quality as the dependent variables and hard and soft skills as the independent variables. The results

showed that the regressionmodel for this relationshipwas not significant due to soft and hard skill

showinghighmulticollinearityduetosignificantcorrelationbetweenthehardandsoftskill.

Keywords:projectmanagement,competencies,hardskills,softskills,KPIs,projectperformance

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ManagementSummary

Researchobjective–Thepurposeofthisstudyistoimproveprojectperformanceofprojectmanagersby

investigatingtheinfluenceofprojectmanagementcompetenciesontheKPIsofprojectperformance.

Research Design–An empirical researchwas conducted at Royal Philips in the Netherlands and the

researchunits thatwere investigatedwereprojectmanagers in India andChina. Thesemarketswere

selectedbecausetheyarelargemarketsintermsofrevenueandnumberofCustomerProjectManagers

(CPMs).Literaturereviewwasdoneandincludedtopicslikecompetencies,hardskills,softskillsandKPIs.

Interviewswereconductedwithprojectmanagersfromthecentralteambasedontheliteraturestudyin

ordertoderivetheconceptualframework.Theresearchconsistedofaquestionnairethatwasusedto

assess theCPMs in themarketof IndiaandChinaand the surveywas sentviaemail. Spearman’s rho

correlation coefficient and regression analysis was used to analyse the hypotheses derived based on

literature.Additionally,controlvariablesyearsofexperienceandcertificationstatuswereusedtofind

howmuchvariancetheyexplainednexttohardandsoftskills.

Findings -The studyentailed a strongpositive relationshipbetweenhardand soft skills. Therewas a

positive relationshipbetween scopemanagement andnegotiation andalsobetweenhuman resource

managementandteambuilding.However,therewasnosignificantrelationshipbetweenbothskillsand

theKPIsofprojectperformance.Thestudyalsofoundtheinfluenceof2variables-yearsofexperience

andcertificationstatusonhardandsoftskills.

Implicationsforprojectmanagers-TheprojectmanagersatPhilipsshouldnotonlyfocusonthehard

skillsbutalsofocusonthesoftskills.Theyshouldlookatdevelopingmoresoftskillsthroughtrainingand

development.Asweidentifyfromthisstudy,thathardandsoftskillshaveasignificantrelationshipand

henceareequallyimportantfortheprojectmanagertobesuccessful.

Limitation-OnelimitationofthisstudyincludethelownumberofCPMs(60)consideredfortheresearch

whichmayhamperthegeneralizabilityoftheresultsoutsidethisstudy.Thesecondlimitationofthestudy

was that the CPMs could not be interviewed to find their views on the assessment as well as the

competenciesassessed.Other limitationsofthestudyarementioned inthe limitationofresearchsub

section.

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TableofContents

Abstract 2

ManagementSummary 3

ListofTables 6

ListofFigures 6

Listofabbreviations 7

1.Introduction 8

1.1Backgroundofcompanyandproblemsfacedbyprojectmanagers 9

1.2ProblemStatement 11

1.3.ResearchObjective 11

1.4MainResearchQuestions 11

1.5Sub-ResearchQuestions 11

2.LiteratureReview 13

2.1Competencies 13

2.2ProjectManagerQualities 13

2.3Hardskills 15

2.4Softskills 19

2.5KeyPerformanceIndicators(KPIs) 23

2.6ConceptualFramework 27

2.6.1Formulationoftheconceptualframework 27

Fig2:ConceptualFramework 29

3.ResearchDesign 30

3.1SampleDesign 30

3.2.Scalevalidityandreliability 31

4.Results 32

4.1Resultsofthequestionnaire 32

4.1.1.GeneralDemographics 32

4.1.2.Skewnessandkurtosis 34

4.2.FindingsrelatedtoHypothesis1 35

4.3.FindingsrelatedtoHypothesis2 35

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4.4.FindingsrelatedtoHypothesis3 36

4.5.YearsofExperienceonhardandsoftskills 38

4.6.Certificationonhardandsoftskills 39

4.7.Additionalrelationships 40

5.Discussion 41

5.1.DiscussionregardingH1 41

5.2.DiscussionregardingH2 41

5.3.DiscussionregardingH3 42

6.Conclusionandfurtherresearch 43

7.LimitationsofResearch 45

8.Appendix 46

9.References 56

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ListofTables

Table1:Summaryofthehardskillsfromliterature

Table2:Summaryofthesoftskillsfromliterature

Table3:Summaryofthekeyperformanceindicators(KPIs)fromliterature

Table4:Yearsofexperienceofthesamplepopulation

Table5:CertificationStatusofthesamplepopulation

Table6:Averageprojectsizeofthesamplepopulation

Table7:KurtosisandSkewnessfordistributionofdata

Table8:RelationshipbetweenScopeManagementandNegotiation

Table9:RelationshipbetweenHumanResourceManagementandTeamBuilding

Table10:Correlationsbetweenhard,softskillsandKPIbasedoncost,timeandquality

Table11:Multipleregressionofallhypothesesintheconceptualmodel

Table12:Partialcorrelationofyearsofexperienceandhard,softskills

Table13:PartialCorrelationofcertificationstatusandhard,softskills

ListofFigures

Fig.1:ProcessFrameworkforaprojectatPhilips

Fig2:ConceptualFramework

Fig3:Conceptualframeworkwithresultsfromregression

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ListofAbbreviations

CPM-Customerprojectmanager

KPI-KeyPerformanceIndicator

HRM-HumanResourceManagement

PMBOK-ProjectManagementBookofKnowledge

NGO-Non-governmentalorganizations

PMP-Projectmanagementprofessional

ERP-EnterpriseResourceplanning

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1.IntroductionProjectmanagementisplayinganimportantroleinchangingbusinesslandscapes(Webster,1993).The

purposeofprojectmanagement,istobringaboutstructureintheexecutionofaproject.Aprojectisused

tocreateauniqueservice,productorresult(Snyder,2014).Theprojectasawhole,hasitsownobjectives,

measurablecriteriaandadefinedcostandtime.Duetothelimitedtimeframeforaproject,thescope

andresourcesavailablearealsolimited.Thetimerequiredtocompleteaprojectalsobecomesimportant.

Themoretimetheproject takestocomplete,themorecomplex itbecomes,raisingtheriskof failure

(Snyder,2014).Thereisavastincreaseintheapplicationofprojectmanagementinorganizationsfrom

2002to2011(Fortune,White,Jugdev,&Walker,2011).

The importance of projectmanagement as one of themain activity in projects in organizations, was

identifiedmuchbeforethe2000s(Shrnhur,Levy,&Dvir,1997).“ProjectManagementisadisciplinethat

applies concepts, techniques, tools and rules to meet project requirements” (Snyder, 2014). Project

management typically consists of 5 phases, namely initiation, planning, implementation, closing, and

monitoring&controlling(Snyder,2014).Thestakeholdersofaprojectarethosepeoplethatareimpacted

byand/orimpacttheproject.Thestakeholdersinaprojectcoverawiderangeofpeoplethatincludesthe

client, sponsor, projectmanager and also people from quality control and quality assurance (Snyder,

2014).

Theprojectmanageristhepersonwhodrivestheprojectandsetstheexpectationsofthestakeholders

involvedintheproject.Itistheprerogativeoftheprojectmanagertosetthestandardsofcost,timeand

qualityforaproject(RIreland,1992).Eachprojectmanageradoptsauniquemanagementandworking

style.However,themanagementandworkingstyleoftheprojectmanageralsodependontheindustry

inwhich theprojectmanager isoperating (R Ireland,1992).Finally, theworking styleadoptedby the

projectmanagerinaprojectdependsalsoonthecompetenciesoftheprojectmanager(Chipulu,Neoh,

Ojiako,&Williams,2013).

Competenciesareoftenstudiedbyindividualattributes,likeskills,knowledgeandattitudes,thatperform

tasks (Rainsbury,Hodges,Burchell,&Lay,2002).The individualattributescanbroadlybeclassifiedas

cognitiveandbehaviouralattributes.Thecognitiveattributesincludetechnicalskillsthatusuallyincludes

technicalknowledgeandexpertise.Behaviouralattributesincludenotonlypersonalcharacteristicsthat

describehowonehandlesasituation,butalso interpersonalskills thatdescribehowrelationshipsare

handled, and organizational skills that describe how to secure organizational outcomes through

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organizational networks (Rainsbury et al., 2002). Skills are hence considered one of the important

attributesofcompetencies.

Thereistheneedforbothhardskillsandsoftskillsinorganizations(AIPM,2008;Association&Caupin,

2006;Snyder,2014).‘Topmanagers’areusuallyrecognizedfortheirabilitytoshowcasebothtechnical

andpersonalskills(Rainsburyetal.,2002).Hardskillsarecognitiveattributesofcompetencies,asthese

skillsinvolveknowingtechnicalaspectstoperformajob.Softskillsontheotherhand,arebehavioural

attributes of competency and includes personal behaviour and managing relationships with people

(Rainsburyetal.,2002).Thedichotomybetweenthetwoskillsareoftenusedtodescribethedifferent

dimensions of a project likemethodologies, systems, approaches,measures, costs and situations and

sometimesusedtocreatea framework.Thetwoskillsalsohavea linktoprojectsuccess (Crawford&

Pollack, 2004). A project is determined a success,when theproject has - an impact on the customer

involved in the project, efficiency in completing the project and impact on the stakeholders. Project

success also has a positive statistical influence on project performance andmore specifically project

managementKeyperformance indicators (KPIs) (Mir&Pinnington,2014).This linkbetweenskillsand

projectperformanceandspecificallyprojectmanagementKPIsneedstobeexploited.

Competenciesoftenhelpinprojectperformance,butcompetenciesareseldomusedasleadingindicators

totracktheprojectperformance(Fayek&Omar,2016).Projectperformancehasbeenusuallyevaluated

using numerousmetrics like cost performance, quality performance and schedule performance (Yun,

Choi,deOliveira,&Mulva,2016).KPIsareasetofmeasurabledataforevaluatingandmeasuringthe

performance of the projectmanager (Kerzner, 2013;Wasioyo, 2010). A KPI can be either leading or

lagging.LeadingKPIsareusedtomeasureandtrackperformancebeforeaproblemarisesinperformance,

whereas lagging KPIs are used to measure and track performance after a problem arises(Orlowski,

Blessner,Blackburn,&Olson,2015).Toidentifythecriticaloutcomesataprojectlevel,thereisaneedat

Philipsforanadequatemeasurementsystemforprojectmanagersandstakeholdersinvolvedinaproject

(Cox,Issa,&Ahrens,2003).

1.1BackgroundofcompanyandproblemsfacedbyprojectmanagersPhilipsisoneoftheworld-renownedcompaniesheadquarteredintheNetherlands.Philips,fromtheyear

2016hasstartedoperatingastwoseparateentities-PhilipsLightingandRoyalPhilips.Fromhereonwe

refermerelytoRoyalPhilips,thehealthcarefocusedcompany,whenweusethewordPhilips.Themission

ofPhilipsistoimprovepeople’slivesbyinnovating,tobuildamoresustainableandhealthierworld.The

visionofthecompanyistoimprovethelivesofpeoplethroughinnovation(Philips,2017).

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TheCustomerProjectManagers(CPMs)atPhilipsfacecomplexproblemswhendeliveringhealthsystems

totheircustomers.Themainroleoftheprojectmanagersistomanagethetripleconstraints-cost,time

andquality.Eachconstraintissetatthestartoftheproject,buttheymaybeadjustedthroughoutthe

projectexecution.Achangeofthecost,timeorqualityconstraintmayinfluencetheproject.Themain

responsibilityoftheprojectmanageristooptimallymanagethecost,timeandqualityanddeliverthe

healthsystemtothecustomers(Philips,2017)

Fig.1:ProcessFrameworkforaprojectatPhilips

Source:Philips,2017

InFig.1,theprocessframeworkshowsthedifferentprocessesinmostprojectsatPhilips,inatypicalorder

for a health system project at Philips. Specialists complete the processes mentioned in the process

framework.The first stage is thepre-sales support,where technical feasibilityandanestimateof the

projectisdrawn.Thesecondstageisquotepreparation,whereasitelayoutproposalismadewiththe

actualcosts.Inthethirdstage,saleshandoverisdoneaftertheorderisconfirmedandthentheprojectis

handedovertotheprojectmanager.Untilthethirdstageofthesaleshandover,theaccountmanagerof

ahospitaloramedicalinstituteisinvolved.Thefourthstageoftheprojectisprojectplanning,wherethe

projectmanageragreesonthescopeofworkandinthefifthstage,thesitereadinessforthehealthsystem

tobeinstalledischecked.Furtherinthesixthstage,themedicalequipmentisdistributedtothesiteof

the hospital or medical institute. In the seventh stage, the lead installer of the system installs the

equipmentatthehospitalormedical institute.Theeightstage involvestheapplicationspecialist,who

trainspersonnelon thepurchasedhealth systemapplication.Finally, in theninthstage, thesystem is

handed over to the customer and the project is transferred to Philips customer service. Additionally,

monitoringandcontrollingaredonethroughouttheproject.Theprojectmanageris involvedinallthe

aforementionedprocesses(Philips,2017).Therefore,itisimportantfortheprojectmanagertohavethe

competencies to dealwith such specialists by not only having knowledge on all these areas but also

managingthespecialists.

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Fromsection1andsubsection1.1weunderstandthatthereisagapinknowledgeinliteraturebetween

therelationshipsbetweenprojectmanagementcompetenciesandprojectperformanceandtheneedto

improve project management competencies of the CPMs in Philips respectively. Hence, this gap in

knowledgeisaddressedinthisresearchstudy.

1.2ProblemStatement Philipsiseverchangingandfacesmanycomplexproblems.Thecompanyispresentin17marketsthat

include Benelux, India, China, Japan, Russia, CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), France, APAC (Asian

Pacific), LatinAmerica,NorthAmerica,MiddleEast,Africa,DACH (Germany,AustriaandSwitzerland),

Iberia,Nordic,UKand Irelandand IIG (Italy, IsraelandGreece).Philips faces theneed todevelopand

strengthencompetencies(moreinparticular,hardandsoftskills)foritsCPMstoimprovecost,timeand

qualityofprojects.Toimproveprojectperformance,Philipswouldliketofindtherelationshipsbetween

thecompetenciesofCPMsandprojectperformance.

1.3.ResearchObjective Theobjectiveofthisresearchistoimproveprojectperformanceofprojectmanagersbyinvestigatingthe

influenceofprojectmanagementcompetenciesonKPIsofprojectperformance.

1.4MainResearchQuestions WhataretherelationshipsbetweenprojectmanagementcompetenciesandKPIsofprojectperformance?

1.5Sub-ResearchQuestions

1. Whatarethehardskillsthatarerequiredbyaprojectmanager?

2. Whatarethesoftskillsthatarerequiredbyaprojectmanager?

3. WhatKPIsareusedtomeasuretheprojectperformance?

4. HowaretheKPIsinfluencedbythehardskillsofaprojectmanager?

5. HowaretheKPIsinfluencedbythesoftskillsofaprojectmanagers?

Thereare5sub-researchquestions(SRQ)tobeansweredattheendofthisresearchstudy.SRQ1,2and

3areusedtofindliteratureonhardskill,softskillsandKPIs.Attheendoftheliteraturereview,expert

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interviewsareconductedwithexperiencedprojectmanagersintheNetherlands,inordertorestrictthis

listfurthertoarriveattherelevanthardskillsandsoftskills.Theinterviewsmightalsobeusedtoidentify

thehardandsoftskillsthatarenotpresentinliteraturebutimportantforprojectmanagersatPhilips.A

conceptualframeworkisthenformulated.SRQ4and5areusedtoderivetherelationshipsbetweenhard

skillsandKPIsandsoftskillsandKPIsrespectively.Thefirst3SRQ’sareusedtofindliteratureandwillbe

dealtwithintheliteraturereviewchapterandtheSRQ4and5areempiricalstudiesandwillbedealtin

theresultchapter.

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2.LiteratureReviewAbriefoverviewofthecompetenciesandprojectmanager’squalitiesisdescribedfirst.Next,hardand

softskillsaredescribed.ThereviewalsotouchesuponthedifferenttypesofKPIsthatareusedtotrack

the performance of project managers. Later, a conceptual framework is derived from the literature

review.Thisliteraturereviewwillhelpinunderstandingtherelationshipsbetweenhardskills,softskills

andKPIs.

2.1CompetenciesCompetenciesisdefinedasthe“abilitytomobilise,integrateandtransferknowledge,skillsandresources

toreachorsurpasstheconfiguredperformanceinworkassignments,addingeconomicandsocialvalue

totheorganizationandtheindividual”(Takey&Carvalho,2015).Therearethreeconceptualisationsfor

competencies. The conceptualisations are generic, behaviouristic and holistic. The generic

conceptualisationindicatesthepersonalqualitiesofaperson.Thepersonisdifferentiatedfromanother

because of these personal qualities and hence is a standout performer. The behaviouristic

conceptualisation deals with the external behaviour of the person and not on the input the person

provides (Biemans, Nieuwenhuis, Poell, Mulder, & Wesselink, 2004; Sandberg, 2000). The holistic

conceptualisation,definescompetenceasanintegratedapproachthatincludesperformanceaswellas

qualitiestodescribeapersoninanorganization.Therearetwodimensionstoholisticapproach.Thefirst

dimension involves significant qualities like knowledge, skills and attitudes and the seconddimension

entailsanoverallpurposetotheorganization(Wesselink,Blok,vanLeur,Lans,&Dentoni,2015).

Thecompetencyofanindividualinanorganizationhasbecomeaverypowerfultoolinmodernhuman

resource management (HRM) (Collins, 1997). The learning processes and performance are often

communicatedthroughcompetenciesinorganizationstheseinrecentdays.Competencieshaveawide

rangeofusesthatincludestraininganddevelopment,selectionofcandidates,performancemanagement,

motivationandrewarding(Mulder,2001).Theperformanceandthejobrolesareclearlydefinedbased

on the competency of an individual, so that the human resource can functionmore efficiently. This

literaturereviewwillhencefocusonamoreholisticapproachasdescribedby(Wesselinketal.,2015).

2.2ProjectManagerQualitiesTheprojectmanageristheperson,whosetstheexpectationsforaproject.Theprojectmanagersetsthe

toneintermsofcost,qualityandtimeandmakessuretheyarenottotallyconflicted.Often,theproject

manageristhepersonblamedwhenvariousdissatisfactionarisesamongstteammembersandcustomers,

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irrespective of industry (R Ireland, 1992). Some common sources of dissatisfaction include keeping

opinionstothemselves,beingabrasive,refusingtoacceptrecommendationsofothersandunabletoset

agoodexampleforpeers. Inordertocounterthedissatisfaction inmost industries,projectmanagers

adoptthefollowingrules.Thefirstruleisthatprojectmanagersestablishagoodrelationshipandtrust

withcustomers.Thesecondruleistounderstandtheunderlyingproblemofthecustomer,trytoaddress

itanddecidethescopeofit.Thethirdruleistolearntoloseanargumentandthefourthruleistodevelop

avisibleinterpersonalrelationshipwiththecustomer(RIreland,1992).

Competencies and behaviours help shape the project manager and transform into a more ‘people

manager’.Projectmanagersareeffectivewhentheyhavegoodcommunicationwiththeprojectteamand

stakeholders,inspireotherprojectmembers,expressintegrityandempathizewithpeople(Fisher,2011).

Honestyandintegrityaretwoimportantcharacteristics,thatdefineaprojectmanagerinordertowinthe

trustofprojectstakeholdersandalsomaintainlong-termrelationshipswiththeprojectteam.Theproject

manager needs to be smart enough, in order to know the strengths and weaknesses of the project

members,putthemintherightroleinaprojectandmakefulluseoftheirpotential.Thisisalsoreferred

toastheauthentizoticbehaviour(Fisher,2011).

Withrespecttoculturalbarriersthatprojectmanagersface,TrompenaarsandHampden-Turner(1997)

talksabouthowtheprojectmanagersneedtoadapttothedifferentworkingcultures.Intheirstudy,they

identifythedifferencesintheworkingstylethatexistsinthewesternandtheeasternpartoftheworld.

Theneedforprojectmanagerstoknowwhatworks inonecultureandwhatdoesn't, is important.To

managepeoplewithan internationalscope,projectmanagersneedtounderstanddifferent traditions

andtrendstobesuccessful.Asmorecompaniesarebeginningtooperateonaglobalscale,adaptingto

cultureshasbecomean important characteristic foranyprojectmanager, irrespectiveof the industry

(Trompenaars&Hampden-Turner,1997).

Developingcompetencieshelpprojectmanagerstokeeppaceandhelpadapttothecurrentmarketand

industrydemands (Chipulu et al., 2013).As the yearshave goneby, thedemands for industrieshave

changedrapidlyandthereisaneedforquestioningtheexistingprocessesandbusinesspractices(Hayden

Jr,1996).Amajorpartofthestudydoneby(Starkweather&Stevenson,2011),includedprojectmanagers

fromthehealthservicesindustry,andtheprojectmanagerswerepreferredtohavespecificcompetencies

forspecificprojects.Asacontrast,intheHealthcareLeadershipAllianceSummit,therewere5important

competenciesrequiredbyhealthcareexecutivesandleadersthatincludecommunicationandrelationship

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management,professionalism, leadership,knowledgeofthehealthcaresystemandbusinessskillsand

knowledge.Additionalresponsibilitythatwerenottechnicalwasalsorequiredforprojectmanagerstobe

successful(Stefl&Bontempo,2008).Napier,KeilandTan(2009)statedtheprojectmanagertobethe

personwhopossessesallthecompetenciesinordertoavoidfailureandsucceedinaproject(Napier,Keil,

&Tan,2009).

Wecanseefromsubsection2.1and2.2,whatarecompetencies,whycompetenciesareimportantinan

organizationandhowtheprojectmanagerbenefits fromhavingsuchcompetencies.Next,weseethe

behaviouralandcognitiveattributesofcompetenciesandanextensiveliteraturestudyisdoneonthese

aspectsfromsubsection2.3.

2.3HardskillsThe projectmanagement competencies are at the core of business, and are often used as a tool to

leverageprojectsuccess(Isik,Arditi,Dikmen,&Birgonul,2009).TheProjectManagementInstitute(PMI)

provideglobalstandards,trainingandcertificationstoprojectmanagersacrosstheworldtoengender

organizational success and mature the profession of project management (Guide 2004). The Project

ManagementBookofKnowledge(PMBOK)defines5importantprocessgroupsthatareimportanttodrive

anyproject.Theyare initiation,planning,executing,monitoring,controllingandclosing(Guide,2004).

Theinitiationprocesshelpstodefineanewprojectoranewphaseoftheproject.Theplanningprocess

helpdefinethescopeofworkanddefinetheobjectivesoftheproject.Thisprocessalsoencompassesall

thetasksthatareinvolvedinplanningandscheduling.Executionprocessinvolvesthedeliveryofthetasks

thataredecided.Monitoringandcontrollingprocessinvolvesreviewingandreportingtheoutcomesof

the project. Closing process involves reflecting on the project outcomes and work on areas for

improvement (Guide, 2004). PMI also defined different knowledge areas that are important for the

projectmanagerstobesuccessful,irrespectiveofindustry.Thereare10knowledgeareasthataredefined

inthePMBOK.Thisframeworkofthe10knowledgeareaswasusedasaguidetofindmoreliteratureon

hardskillsforthisresearchstudy.ThefocusofthePMBOKisalsomoreonhardskillsandhencewasused

as a framework for reviewingmore literature on hard skills (Guide, 2004). The different studies that

identifiedthedifferentprojectmanagementhardskillsaredescribedbelowandsummarizedattheend

ofthissection.

Meredith and Mantel (2011), Forsberg et al., (2000) came up with hard skills that included Project

Integration management, Project scope management, Project Time management, Project Quality

management,ProjectCostmanagement,ProjectHumanresourcemanagement,ProjectCommunication

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management,ProjectRiskmanagement,ProjectProcurementmanagementintheirstudy(Forsberg&H

Cotterman,2000;Meredith&MantelJr,2011).Thestudydescribednineimportanthardskillsthatwere

describedaspartofthePMBOKframework.

AccordingtoChinandHamid(2015),twohardskillsnamelycostandtimemanagementwereidentified.

Intheirstudy,theydescribedhowprojectcostmanagementandprojecttimemanagementareimportant

andhowtheir importance isevident inanyproject.Thepracticeoftimemanagementused8typesof

toolstomanagetime(Chin&Hamid,2015).

Fromthepreviousstudy,theimportanceoftimemanagementwasidentified.Mackenzie(1972)describes

the 5 processes that are involved in time management. The 5 processes were time planning, time

estimating,timeschedulingandtimecontroltoallocatetime,toeachoftheprocess.Bydoingso,they

makesuretherearenodelaysincompletingtheprojectontime(MacKenzie,1972).

ScopemanagementisanotherimportanthardskilldescribedinthePMBOK.Scopemanagementinvolves

theactivitiesthatmanagethescopeofanentireprojectusing(Khan,2006).Theauthordefinesthe5

componentsthatencompasstheentiretyofscopemanagementinaprojectasprojectinitiation,scope

planning,scopedefinition,scopeverificationandscopechangecontrol(Khan,2006).

Riskmanagement,anotherimportanthardskillfromPMBOKwasdealtby(Zwikael&Ahn,2011).Zwikael

andAhn(2011)intheirstudytalkabouttheimportanceofriskmanagementforprojectmanagement.

Theyalsodescribetheneedforbetterriskmanagementplanningdueto limitedvarietyoftools,poor

qualityofuse,highcomplexity,lowauthorityofprojectmanagersandperceivedloweffectiveness.The

resultsfromthestudyrevealedthatriskmanagementisveryimportantincountrieswithlowuncertainty

avoidanceandindustriesthatexhibitlowprojectmanagementmaturity(Zwikael&Ahn,2011)

Crawford(2005)inhisstudywhichwasconductedinthreecountriesnamelyAustralia,UKandUSAfound

a number of hard skills essential for projectmanagement. They included contractmanagement, time

management,costmanagement,procurementmanagement,humanresourcemanagementamongother

competencies.Thestudyalsousedthehardskillstofindtheperceptionofseniormanagementandthe

resultwasthattherewaslesssignificance(Crawford,2005).

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Takey and Carvalho (2015) in their study, used competency mapping of project management

competencies in an engineering company. They used 4 categories to map project management

competenciesthatincludedprojectmanagementprocesses,personal,technicalandcontextandbusiness.

The projectmanagement processes category includes integration, scope, time, costs, quality, human

resource,communication,risk,contractandsafetyandhealthmanagement.Theresultsalsorevealthat

cost and scopewere importantwith respect to financial planning and schedule planning respectively

(Takey&Carvalho,2015).

AccordingtoIsiketal.,(2009),thereisaneffectofcorporatestrengthsandweaknessesontheproject

management competencies. The project management competencies used for this study include 9

competencies based on the need for three different industries and included competencies like

stakeholder,schedule,cost,quality,humanresourceandriskmanagement(Isiketal.,2009).

Briere, Proulx, Navaro Flores, Laporte (2015) enlisted the different types of competencies for project

managers in International NGOs. The technical skills used for their research included a list of 19

competencies. They important competencies were risk and opportunity, quality project organization,

scopeanddeliverables,resources,costandfinance,timeandprojectphasesandprocurementtoname

some. They used the project knowledge in specific NGO settings to find perceptions of project

managementpractitioners(Brière,Proulx,Flores,&Laporte,2015).

SafetyandhealthmanagementwasatopicthatwasnotpartoftheframeworkofPMBOKbutwasused

asanimportantcompetencyinmanyresearchstudies.Thestudyaboutsafetyandhealthmanagement,

dealtwithreducingthenumberofaccidents,noincreaseinthecostofinsuranceandcompliancetothe

regulations. This competency was important for people working in places that were more prone to

accidents.Somemethodstoreducethenumberofaccidentsincludedtrainingactivities,supervisionand

innovativeuseoftechnology(Ringen,Seegal,&England,1995).Thesummaryofallthehardskillsderived

fromthevariousauthorsfromliteraturearedescribedinTable1.

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Table1:Summaryofthehardskillsfromliterature

HardSkills Meredith

and

Mantel

(2002);

Forsberg

etal.,

2000)

Chin

and

Abdul

Hamid

(2015)

Macken

zie

(2013)

Khan

(2006

)

Crawf

ord

(2005)

Takeyand

Carvalho

(2015)

Isiketal.,

(2009)

Briereetal.,

(2015)

Zwikaeland

Ahn(2011)

Scopemanagement X X X X

Timemanagement X X X X X X X

HRmanagement X X X X

Communication

managementX X X

Integration

managementX X

Costmanagement X X X X X X

Quality

managementX X X X

RiskManagement X X X X X

Procurement

managementX X X

Stakeholder

management X

Contract

management X X X X

SafetyandHealth

management X X

Supplychain

management X

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El-Sabaa1 (2001) studied the skills thatwere required for aprojectmanager tobe successful in three

differentindustries.Thestudyusedhumanskills,organizationalskillsandtechnicalskillsandtheresults

revealedthathumanskillswasthemostimportantinallthreeindustries.Thetechnicalskillsincludedin

thisstudywereknowledgeoftoolsandtechniques,projectknowledge,understandingprojectprocesses

andtechnologyuse(El-Sabaa,2001).

StarkweatherandStevenson(2011)intheirstudyintheITindustrydevelopedacriticalcompetencyindex.

Theyusedasetofcompetenciestoidentifythecriticalcompetencies.TheauthorsdevisedaHiringCriteria

Indexusingthecriticalcompetenciesthatincludedtechnicalexpertise,educationandPMPcertification.

The resultsof this studyalso concluded that soft skillsweremorepreferredoverhard skills in the IT

industry and the following sectionwill be a literature reviewof the soft skills concernedwithproject

managementcompetencies(Starkweather&Stevenson,2011).

Therewere13hardskills thatwere identifiedfrom9differentauthors.Someauthors identifiedmore

thanonehard skill thatwas importantwhereas someauthors could identify as lowas 1hard skill as

important.Inordertobringdownthenumberofhardskillstoamanageablelist,theskillswerepresented

intheformaquestionnairetoexpertstoidentifythemostimportanthardskills.

2.4SoftskillsSoftskillsareveryimportanttobesuccessfulinindustries.Varioussoftskillshavebeendeemedimportant

invariousindustries,ashavingonlytechnicalskillsarenotenoughtosurviveintoday’sworld(Takey&

Carvalho,2015).Edum-FotweandMcCaffer(2000)intheirstudy,elucidatethe“generalknowledgeand

skills”requiredforaprojectmanagertodevelop,withrespecttotheprojectmanagementcompetency

(Edum-Fotwe&McCaffer,2000).Theauthorsidentifysoftskillsasprimaryandsecondary.Theprimary

softskillsincludemanagerialskills.Themanagerialskillsthatwereidentifiedwereleadership,delegation,

negotiation, decision making, motivation, promotion and team working, time management and top

managementrelations.Secondaryskillsincludefinancial,legalandcommunicationskillstodevelopthe

projectmanagementcompetency(Edum-Fotwe&McCaffer,2000).Thedifferentstudiesthatidentified

thedifferentsoftskillsaredescribedbelowandsummarizedattheendofthissection.

Negotiation is oneof the skills highlightedby Edum-FotweandMcCaffer (2000).Negotiation involves

stepping into theshoesofanotherperson that is involvedandunderstanding theexpectationsof the

otherpersoninvolvedandthendeciding.Thescopedeterminationoftheprojectisalsodeterminedand

1 There were authors that used general descriptions of project management competencies and hence were also included in this review of literature but were not part of the summary table.

20

adjustedthroughoutprojectexecution(Meredith&MantelJr,2011).Scopedeterminationisanimportant

phase in the hard skill scope management. Hence, from the above discussion we arrive at the first

hypothesis

H1:Scopemanagementisinfluencedbynegotiation

Brill,BishopandWalker(2006)usedaWeb-basedDelphisurveytofindtheimportantsoftskillsthatare

requiredforaprojectmanagertobeeffectiveatworkplace(Brill,Bishop,&Walker,2006)).Thismethod

used 2 rounds of survey and identified 78 trainable soft skills for the projectmanagers. The authors

identifiedthemainsoftskillstobeproblemsolvingexpertise,leadershipexpertise,emotionalintelligence,

content knowledge, analytical expertise, people expertise, communication expertise, project

administrationexpertiseandtoolsexpertise(Brilletal.,2006).

Emotional intelligence is a soft skill that is often considered vital for projectmanagers. Theaspectof

emotionalintelligenceisconsideredanassetforprojectmanagers(Clarke,2010).Thestudyalsorevealed

that training had an impact on the emotional intelligence of the projectmanagers. Further, usage of

emotions, conflict management, teamwork and empathy were used as the variable on which the

emotionalintelligenceofprojectmanagersweremeasured(Clarke,2010).Inanotherstudyofemotional

intelligence,DulewiczandHiggs(2003)cameupwith15leadershipcompetenciesunderthegroupingof

intellectual,managerialandemotionalquotient.Theprojecttypewasclassifiedashigh,mediumandlow

inordertoclassifytheprojectmanager’sleadershipstyleandexplainhowcertainleadershipstyleslead

tomoreprojectsuccess(Higgs&Dulewicz,2003).Thedisparityinthekindofprojectmanagerswasalso

determined by their competence to deliver on projects. Boyatzis (1982) in his study found a list of

competenciesthatdistinguishedthesuperior,averageandpoormanagers.Thecompetenciesaccounted

fornearly27%oftheeffectivenessofamanager. Inthe6setofcompetenciesthatweredetermined,

leadershipandsoftskillswereamongstthem(Boyatzis,1982).Pettersen(1991)inhisstudy,alsodiscusses

theimportantprojectmanagercharacteristicstobeeffective.Thestudyrevealedthattheinterpersonal

skillslikecommunication,teambuildingandleadershipweremoreimportantthanthetechnologicalskills

tobecomeagoodmanager.Skillsthatareimportantformanagementwerealsoidentifiedlikeplanning,

goalfixingandanalysis(Pettersen,1991).

RosenauandGithens(2011)talksabouttheneedforprojectmanagerstobepoliteandhonestinorder

towintheconfidenceoftheprojectteammembers.Theauthorsuggeststhatamyriadofsoftskillslike

21

teambuilding,problemsolvingandcommunicationskillsareimportantfortheprojectmanagertodeal

withthemanyproblemsthattheyface.Furthermore,itisalsosuggestedthatthesoftskillsareconsidered

most important than hard skills (Rosenau & Githens, 2011). Trust amongst project personnel and

stakeholdersisanotherimportantaspectthatinspiresprojectperformance(Kadefors,2004).Trustinthis

study, is dealt from the point of view of partnering projects and how each of the stakeholders are

respectedfortheexpertisetheybringtotheproject(Kadefors,2004).

Effectiveprojectmanagersusedtheculturalaspectofdealingwithprojectpersonnel,inspiredthemtobe

partoftheorganizationandmadethemownthemissionoftheorganization.Alignmentoftheteam’s

goalandorganizationgoalhelpsinbuildingaunifiedorganizationalcultureandteamspirit(Fisher,2011).

Fisher(2011)alsoconsidersthatunbiasednatureandrecognitionofpersonalmilestonesofindividualsas

traitsthatareimportanttounifytheteambehindtheorganization’smission(Fisher,2011).

Theteammembersofaproject,needstobeselectedwithcare,astheyshouldnotbedetrimentalinthe

executionoftheproject.Dainty,ChengandMoore(2005)intheirstudydevelopedapredictivemodelto

selectanddevelophumanresourceinanorganization.Self-controlandteamleadershipqualitieswere

defined as the most predictive behaviour of project management within the predictive model.

Performancemanagementandrecruitmentweresomeofthehumanresourcedecisionsthatwerebased

ontheapplicationofthispredictivemodel(Dainty,Cheng,&Moore,2004).

Theteammembersinaproject,needtokeeplearningandimprovingtobettertheprojectanddevelop

betterskills.Edmondson,Bohmeretal.,(2001)inhisstudyreiteratestheneedfortheprojectmanager

tocreateanatmosphereofexcellentcamaraderieandlearningtoaidlearningforoneselfandalsothe

membersoftheteam.Asprojectmanagers, it is imperativeforthemtobethedrivingforcetoenable

teamlearningandalsobeopentonewsuggestions(Edmondson,Bohmer,&Pisano,2001).Lunemann

andWysocki(2008)ontheotherhand,talksabouthowprojectmanagersneedtobecreativeandinspire

theprojectteaminfindingnew,innovativesolutions.Theauthorsalsotouchuponconflictmanagement

whilecomingupwithnewsolutionsandhowtocontrolconflictsthatariseduetothesenewsolutions,

withintheteam(Lunemann&Wysocki,2008).

El-Sabaa(2001)inhisstudypointsouttheimportanthumanskillsthataprojectmanagerrequirestobe

effective. He mentions delegation, communication, enthusiasm, coping with situations, mobilizing

22

subordinateenergyassomeimportanthumanskillsacrossthreeindustries.Healsorevealsthedifference

inthecareerpathsofaprojectmanagerandafunctionalmanager(El-Sabaa,2001).

The management of project ecology and interpersonal relations are important in a project. On an

organizational front, risk and uncertainty are affected by soft skills. For example, the organizational

culturecanplayadifference(Carvalho&RabechiniJunior,2015).SoderlundandMaylor(2012)intheir

researchpointoutthatriskcanbeoftenmanagedbyequippingtheprojectteamwithsoftskills(Söderlund

&Maylor,2012).

StevensonandStarkweather(2011)intheirstudyintheITindustryalsofoundoutthatpractitionersof

projectmanagementprefer soft skillsmore tohard skills. They identified6projectmanagement core

competenciesthatincludedabilitytocommunicateatalllevels,leadership,culturalfit,abilitytodealwith

ambiguity,verbalandwrittenskillsandattitude(Starkweather&Stevenson,2011).

HRMisonehardskillthatoftenusessoftskillstocatertothedifferentprocessesinvolved.Ding,Kamet

al., 2015 mention 4 HRM practices namely recruitment and selection, training and development,

performancemanagementandrewardmanagement.Thisstudyalsoelucidatestheimportanceofteam

buildingactivities(partoftraininganddevelopment)andhowtheseactivitiespositivelyinfluenceHRM

practices(Ding,Kam,Zhang,&Jie,2015;Starkweather&Stevenson,2011).Hence,withregardstothe

abovediscussionwecometothesecondhypothesisi.e.

H2:Humanresourcemanagementisinfluencedbyteambuilding.

ThesummaryofallthesoftskillsderivedfromthevariousauthorsfromliteraturearedescribedinTable

2.TheformatofTable2isslightlydifferentfromtheTable1sincethenumberofsoftskillsidentifiedwere

morethan20.

23

Table2:Summaryofthesoftskillsfromliterature2

Skilltype

Competenciesfromliterature Referencesused

SoftSkills Leadership;communication;delegation;decisionmaking;

problemsolving;negotiation;motivationandpromotion;

managementrelationship;contentexpertise;analyticalexpertise;

peopleexpertise;trust;emotionalintelligence;culturalfit;deal

withambiguity;verbalandwrittenskills;attitude;organizational

culture;self-control;conflictmanagement;polite;workunder

pressure;commitmenttotheorganization;developmentofother

Edum-FotweandMcCaffer(2000);Brillet

al.,(2006);SoderlundandMaylor(2012);

StevensonandStarkweather(2010);

CarvalhoandRabechiniJunior,2015;

Pettersen,1991;Boyatzis(1982);Dulewicz

andHiggs(2003);Daintyetal.,2004;

Wysocki(2007);Edondsonetal.,(2005);

Rosenau(1998);Kadefors(2004);Clarke

(2010);El-Sabaa(2001)

There were around 24 soft skills that were identified from the literature study. Some soft skills like

development of others, polite, verbal andwritten skillswere removed as development of others and

leadershiphadthesamemeaningandpoliteandverbalandwrittenskillswereconsideredpre-requisites

foranyemployeeandhenceremoved.Therestofthe21softskillshadtofurtherreducedtoamanageable

list and hence the skills were presented in the form a questionnaire to experts to identify themost

importantsoftskills.

2.5KeyPerformanceIndicators(KPIs)Whenwe focuson theperformanceofaproject, therearedifferentmetricsused tomeasureproject

performancefordifferentprojects.Theperformanceofthesupplychainforexample,ismeasuredusing

a balanced scorecard. This serves the purpose of awholesomeperformancemeasurement systemof

people involvedinthesupplychainandincludesthreemajorperspectivesnamely:financial,customer

andtheinternalbusinessperspective(Brewer&Speh,2000).KPIsareoftenusedtomeasurethethree

differentperspectivesofthebalancedscorecard.Coxetal.,(2003)mentionsthatKPIsareoftenusedas

anindicatortomeasuretheperformanceofprojectmanagersandareprojectspecific(Coxetal.,2003).

KPIs are a set of measurable data for evaluating and measuring performance of the project

manage(Kerzner,2013;Wasiyo,2009).Yeung,Chan,ChanandLi(2007)intheirstudydiscussestheDelphi

methodwhichisusedtomeasuretheKPIsinpartneringprojects.TheKPIsthatwereidentifiedbasedon

2 There were approximately 20-25 soft skill competencies that were identified and hence the setup of the table is slightly different from the previous table and only an overview of all authors and skills identified are mentioned.

24

this technique were given weights. The identified KPIs were innovation and improvement, effective

communications, trust and respect, quality performance, top management commitment, cost

performanceand timeperformance in the increasingorderof theirweights (Yeung,Chan,Chan,&Li,

2007). The following section covers the different types of KPIs used in different studies and are

summarizedattheendofthesection.

Yeung et al., (2012) in Hong Kong, used a method called reliability interval method (RIM) as a

benchmarkingmethod tomeasureproject success (Yeung,Chan,Chan,Chiang,&Yang, 2012). In this

study,theyidentified10KPIswithweightstoformulateacompositeperformanceindex(CPI).TheKPIs

thatwereidentifiedweresafety,cost,time,quality,clientsatisfaction,effectivenessofcommunication,

enduser satisfaction, effectivenessof planning, functionality andenvironmental performance (Yeung,

Chan,Chan,Chiang,&Yang,2012).

Inanotherstudy,thecorrelationforthequantitativeandqualitativeindicatorswereperformedinorder

to find the most extensively used indicator. Though the correlation between the quantitative and

qualitative indicatorswere inconclusive,therewere6 indicatorsthatwerereporteduseful.Theywere

found tobeon-timecompletion, cost, safety,quality control, timeandunitsperman-hour(Coxetal.,

2003).

Almahmoud,Doloi,Panuwatwanich(2012)intheirstudyinSaudiArabia,usedtheSwissCheesemodelin

order to guide the linksbetween thePublicHealthCheck framework andKPIs (Almahmoud,Doloi,&

Panuwatwanich, 2012). The study was done in order to help project managers to manage project

performancemoreefficiently.TheimportantKPIsthatwereidentifiedarecost,schedule,quality,safety,

customersatisfactionandscopemanagement(Almahmoudetal.,2012).

Another way to measure the project performance was based on perspectives. They identified three

perspectivesnamelyfinancial,customerandinternalbusiness.Inthefinancialperspectives,themeasures

wereprofitability,growth,financialstabilityandcashflow.Thecustomerperspectiveincludedqualityof

serviceandwork,externalcustomersatisfactionandmarketsharewhiletheinternalbusinessperspective

includedsafety,businessefficiencyandeffectivenessofplanning(Ali,Al-Sulaihi,&Al-Gahtani,2013).

TheArchitectural,EngineeringandConstruction(AEC)firms,founditdifficulttoadapttotheoperating

environment.Thisstudyhelpeddeterminetheperformance leveloftheprojects inChinaandthereby

25

achieveprojectsuccess.Themeasuresthatwereusedtomeasureprojectperformancewerecost,time

andquality(Ling,Low,Wang,&Lim,2009).

Luu,KimandHyunh(2008)didastudytobenchmarktheprojectmanagementperformancefromthe

viewpointofacontractor.Theyusedtypically9KPIstobenchmarktheirperformance.Theywerecost

performance, timeperformance,customersatisfactiononservices,customersatisfactiononproducts,

qualitymanagementsystem,projectteamperformance,safetymanagement,changemanagementand

materialmanagement.Thebenchmarkingapproachhelpedthecompanytolearnthebestpracticesand

applythemtoimproveinacontinuousmanner(Luu,Kim,&Huynh,2008).

Aconstructioncompanyundertookastudytofindthemetricsforprojectperformance.Cost,time,scope

and safety, quality innovation and sustainability were the metrics identified from the study. These

benchmarkmetricswere filteredon thebasisofnationaland internationalbenchmarking techniques.

Finally,thisstudyentailedasetofmetrics,collectionaswellasreportingmethodologies(Rankin,Fayek,

Meade,Haas,&Manseau,2008).

InastudybasedonEnterpriseResourcePlanning(ERP)systems,KPIsweredefinedtohave2typesof

specificities:-knowledgeandtime.TheKPIsthatwereusedforthisstudywerecostperformance,time

performance, predictability of cost and time, client satisfaction, productivity, profitability, safety and

defectswhichis9intotal.ThisstudyhelpedinimplementationofERPbypractitionersandresearchersin

theirrespectivefirms(Skibniewski&Ghosh,2009).Thesummaryofallthekeyperformanceindicators

derivedfromthevariousauthorsfromliteraturearedescribedinTable3.

26

Table3:Summaryofthekeyperformanceindicators(KPIs)fromliterature

Key

Performance

Indicators

(KPIs)

Yeung

etal.,

2007

Yeung

etal.,

2012

Rankin

etal.,

2008

Skibniews

kiand

Ghosh

(2009)

Luuetal.,

2008

Lingetal.,

2009

Alietal.,

2013

Almahmoud

etal.,2012

Coxet

al.,2003

Cost X X X X X X X X

Time X X X X X X X X

Quality X X X X X X X

SafetyandDefects X X X X X X

Scope X X X

Customer/Client

satisfaction X X X X X

Sustainability X X

Changeand

material

management

X

Unitspermanhour X X

Communication X

Trustandrespect X

Topmanagement

commitmentX

Predictabilityof

costandtime X

Therewere13KPIsthatwereidentifiedbasedontheworksof9differentauthors.Wefindthatofthe13

KPIsthreeoftheKPIshavebeenusedtomeasureprojectperformanceby8oftheauthors.Hence,the

threeKPIswerechoseninthisresearchstudytomeasureprojectperformanceandusedintheformulation

27

oftheconceptualframework.Since,theKPIswereeasilyidentifiableunlikethehardandsoftskillsfrom

literaturereview,theyweredirectlyusedintheformulationoftheconceptualframework.

Therelationshipbetweenmanagerialcompetenciesandthesiteperformanceinanorganizationhasbeen

showntobepositivefromthestudyconductedinonemajordivisionofaFortune500productscompany.

ThisdivisionwasspreadintheUnitedStatesandwasconcentratedbasedonpopulationineachofthe

states. There were weighted scores given based on performance indicators like shipment accuracy,

defectsandtheywerefoundtobepositivelycorrelatedtomanagerialcompetencies(Levenson,Vander

Stede,&Cohen,2006).

Withtheabovediscussion,wecomeupwiththethirdhypothesis

H3:CompetenciesinfluenceKPIspositively

2.6ConceptualFrameworkThe project management competencies that were identified based on the literature review are

operationalizedbasedonthefindingsofthedifferentauthors.Thethreevariablesoperationalizedinthis

studyarehardskills,softskillsandkeyperformanceindicatorsastheyarepotentialcandidatestoaddress

theproblemstatement.Literaturewashencedividedinto3categories:-Hardskills,SoftSkillsandKey

Performanceindicators.

Semi-structuredinterviewswereconductedwithtwoexpertsinordertofindtheimportanthardandsoft

skillsfortheprojectmanagersatPhilips.Thiswasdoneastheliteraturereviewshonelightonmanyhard

andsoftskillsanditwasdifficulttodeterminethehardandsoftskillsspecificforPhilipsprojectmanagers

andthelistwas8 innumberforeachoftheskills.Thelistofhardandsoftskillsfromliteraturewere

presentedandtheexpertswereaskedtoselectthemostimportantforprojectmanagersatPhilips.The

experts had to tick the important skills that are important for the project managers at Philips. This

questionnairewasconsolidatedbasedonboththeexpertstickingthesameskillsandthenincludedinthe

conceptualframework.TheinterviewguidecanbefoundintheAppendix.

2.6.1FormulationoftheconceptualframeworkThe interviewwith the experts was done in order to determine the hard and soft skills. Integration

Management was included as the project manager at Philips were involved in getting the different

processes like3rdparties, logisticalchallenges,buildingworksetc., together.ScopeManagementwas

includedinorderfortheprojectmanagertoagreeonwhattheprojectentailstodelivertothecustomer

28

atthestartoftheproject.TimeManagementwasincludedforprojectmanagersastheyhadtoplanand

scheduletheprojectsothattherearenoexpenseslikestoringtheequipmentinawarehouse,delayin

handingovertheequipmenttothecustomeretc.CostManagementisincludedasthestipulatedcosts

thatisdeterminedduringtheplanningoftheprojectisnotexceededandalsotryandreducethecostsof

logisticsand labourtoaminimum.HumanResourceManagement is includedastheprojectmanager

shouldbeable tohandle theprojectpersonnelandmakesure therightperson isdoingtheright job.

CommunicationManagement was included as the project manager must be communicate with the

differentstakeholdersinvolvedintheprojectaswellascommunicatewiththeprojectteamtobealigned

withthegoaloftheproject.RiskManagementisincludedasthereareexternalandinternalstakeholders

andtheriskoftheirexpectationsnotbeingmetandtheprojectmanagermustbeabletohandleallof

thisrisk.StakeholderManagementisimportantastheprojectmanagerisinvolvedwithmanypeoplein

aproject.AsmentionedintheprocessframeworkinFig1.,thereareaccountmanagers,leadinstallers

andapplication specialists that are stakeholdersof theprojectother than the customers. Theproject

managermustmakesurethatallofthementionedpersonnelknowwhat,whenandhowtheprojectmust

becarriedoutandalsokeepallstakeholdersinterested.

Withrespecttothesoftskills,teambuildingisincludedinordertomakesurethattheprojectmanager

hasaclearviewofwhatisexpectedoftheteamandhowtohelpdevelopthemforthefuture.Conflict

resolution is includedastheprojectmanagermustbeabletoresolveconflictamongstakeholders,be

capabletokeepthecustomerhappyatalltimesandalsonotaddexcesscoststotheproject.Problem

solvingisveryimportantfortheprojectmanageraswhenaproblemarises,theprojectmanagermustbe

abletotargettherootcauseoftheproblem.Theprojectmanagershouldmakesurethattheprojectdoes

notrun intothesameissueagain.Negotiation isalsorelatedtoscopemanagementandasoftskill in

whichtheprojectmanagergivesintoafewbargainsandwinsfewbargainswithstakeholders,butitis

importantwhereandwhentonegotiateintheproject.Leadershipisincludedastheexpertsfeltthatthe

abilitytoleadaprojectbyexamplewasimportant.Commitmentwasincludedastheprojectmanager

had to reallybe involved in thedailyactivitiesandcreate initiatives that further improved redundant

processesandbydoingsoaddgreatervaluetotheorganizationasawhole.Workunderpressureisthe

nextsoftskilltobeselectedasoften,theteammightfacesituationswherethereareclashesinopinions

amongsttheprojectpersonnelandalsobetweentheprojectpersonnelandthestakeholders.Theproject

managersshouldbegoodenoughtohandlesuchpressuresandstilldeliveronthescopeoftheproject.

Thelastsoftskillselectedisattentiontodetail.Thiswasincludedtomakesurethattheprojectdocuments

areinorderandtheprojectmanagerisalsoabletofollowstandardproceduresinhandlingcustomers,

installations, handover of equipment and also after sales services. The KPIs could be derived from

29

literaturetobecost,timeandquality.Moststudiesusedthesethreeindicatorsandhencewaseasierto

narrowdowntheKPIsforthisstudy.Withthehelpoftheseinterviewsandliterature,thefinalconceptual

framework for this study was established. (P. Goeree, personal communication, June 2017; L. Soto,

personalcommunication,June,2017).

Fig2:ConceptualFramework

H1

Hard Skills

• IntegrationManagement• ScopeManagement• Timemanagement• Costmanagement• HumanResourceManagement• CommunicationManagement• RiskManagement• StakeholderManagement

Soft Skills

• Leadership• TeamBuilding• ProblemSolving• ConflictResolution• Commitment• Negotiation• Workunderpressure• Attentiontodetail

KPIs CostbasedTimebasedQualitybasedH

2

H3

30

3.ResearchDesignTheempiricalresearchforthisstudyconsistedofaquestionnairefortheCPMs.Thequestionnairewas

usedtotestthehypothesisthatwereidentifiedfromtheconceptualframework.Expertinterviewswere

conductedduringtheformulationoftheconceptualframework.Theapproachofthequestionnairewas

exploratory.

3.1SampleDesignThetypeofsamplingthatwasusedforthisresearchstudyispurposivesampling.Thistypeofsamplingis

done,inordertoidentifyandselectinformation-richsamplesandtomaximizeefficiencyandvalidityof

thestudy.Thissamplingmethodisnon-randomandisdoneinordertocoverthebiggestmarkets(Kumar,

2010).IndiaandChinaarehugemarketsconsistingof58projectmanagersintotal.The2selectedmarkets

coveredapproximatelyone-thirdoftheprojectmanagersatPhilipsandhencewerechosen.

Twointerviewswereconductedwithexperts,inordertoselectfromthederivedcompetenciesfromthe

literature review. The interviews were done to select the important soft and hard skills that were

identifiedfromtheliteraturereview.Anotherreasonforconductingtheinterviewsweretocoincidewith

theinterestsofPhilips.Duringthecourseoftheinterview,theexpertswereaskedtomentionimportant

competenciesforprojectmanagersatPhilips.Thelistofcompetenciesderivedfromliteraturereviewwas

not presented initially to the experts to avoid bias in response. This was done to identify other

competencies thatwerenot identified through the literature review.Semi-structured interviewswere

conductedwith experts to not lose focus of the topic. The interviews on an average took around 50

minutes tobecompleted.Theseexpertswerespecificallychosenas theywere involved indeveloping

competencies of CPMs. The interviewed experts had 10+ years of experience as projectmanagers at

Philips. The interviews were analysed using content analysis to identify expectations from project

managers.Theinterviewswerealsorecordedtonotmissoutonthedetails.

Thechosenhardskills,softskillsandKPIsfromtheconceptualframeworkarethenusedtoformulatea

questionnairethatissentviaemailtotheprojectmanagersinIndiaandChina.Thequestionnairewas

usedastheresearchinstrument.Thequestionnaireconsistedof2parts.Thefirstpartofthequestionnaire

consistedofnominalvariableslikeyearsofexperience,certificationstatus,email idandmarketname.

Thesecondpartofthequestionnaireconsistedofordinalvariablesthatcoveredthehardskills,softskills

andKPIs.Thequestionnaireuseda7-pointLikertscalewithclosedquestions inorder tomeasure the

31

hard,softskillsandKPIs.A7-pointLikertscalewaschosensothatthereismoredistinctionbetweeneach

itemonthescaleandtheprojectmanagerscanchooseaccordingtoeachoftheskillsandKPIs.Forthe

hard,softskillsandtheKPIs,the2extremepossibilitiesontheLikertscalewere“StronglyDisagree”to

“Strongly Agree”. A pre-test was done in order to make sure that the questions were clear and

understandablebytestingthequestionnaireon3projectmanagersfromthecentralteamatPhilips.The

questionnairewassentviaemailtotheprojectmanagersofIndiaandChinatoassessthemselves.The

questionnairewaskeptopenforaperiodof2weeksfromthe15thofJulytothe30thofJuly.Enoughtime

wasgivenfortheprojectmanagerstocompletethequestionnaireandconfirmtheresponses.Thedata

fromthequestionnairewasusedastheprimarysourcefordata.

KPIdataforeachoftheprojectmanagersbasedonthecost,timeandqualitywereusedfromthecompany

databasetocomparewiththedataoftheprojectmanagersfromthequestionnaireandmakesureboth

datacoincide.Thecomparisonwasdonetomakesurethattheprojectmanager’sperformancefromthe

questionnaire and the company data were not different. The responses from the survey were first

downloaded and then comparedwith the companydatabase.Due to confidential reasons, the entire

excerptofthedatabaseisnotrevealed.Theresponsesofthequestionnairefortheperformancealone,

were checked using the company database and corrected if the project manager gave a different

response.

3.2.ScalevalidityandreliabilityThequestionnairewasformulatedusingpreviousstudiestopromotecontentvalidity.Tomeasurethe

hardskills,previousworkofLingetal., (2009)wasused(Lingetal.,2009).Tomeasurethesoftskills,

(Arnold,Arad,Rhoades,&Drasgow,2000),(Allen&Meyer,1990),(Pinto&Kharbanda,1995),(Troukens,

2013)and(Englund,2010)wereused.TomeasuretheKPIs,(Yeungetal.,2007)and(El-Sabaa,2001)were

used.Thecontrolvariablesyearsofexperienceandcertificationwerealsousedbasedonpreviousstudies

doneby(Levensonetal.,2006)and(Mahaney&Greer,2004).

TheCronbach’salphatestisthemostcommonreliabilitytestusedtodeterminetheconsistencyofthe

scalebeingused(Field,2013).TheacceptablevalueofCronbach’salphavariesbetween0.7to0.8tobe

areliablescale.TheCronbach’salphawasfoundforbothhardandsoftskillsseparately.Thiswasdonein

ordertofindthemeanscoreofthe8variablesinvolvedforbothhardandsoftskills.TheCronbach’salpha

valueforhardskillswasfoundtobe0.768forhardskillsand0.772forsoftskills.Hence,thechosenLikert

scaleforthisstudyisreliable.Themeanscoreofthevariableswerecombinedtoform2newvariables:-

oneforhardskillandoneforsoftskill.HardSkillvariableconsistedofthemeanscoreofthe8variables

forhardskillsandsoftskillwasformedusingthemeanscoreofthe8variablesforsoftskills.

32

4.Results4.1ResultsofthequestionnaireThenumberofrespondentsofCPMsprovidedbyPhilipsinthemarketsofIndiaandChinawere21and

39respectively.Therewere2extraresponsesfromtheCPMsinChinaduetoadditionof2newCPMsin

the Chinamarket. The questionnairewas sent via email and all the CPMs responded. Therefore, the

responserateforthequestionnairewasa100%.ThecentralteamofPhilipsinTheNetherlandshelpedby

sendinganadditionalemailtotheCPMsinIndiaandChina,inordertomakethemrealizetheimportance

ofthequestionnaire.Thismightalsobeapossiblereasoninordertoreceive100%response.Thenon-

responsebiasforthisstudyishencelowastheresponserateishighandthereisnounderrepresentation

ofthepopulation(Berg,2005).Eventhough,thequestionnairewasalittlelengthy,duetothesupport

fromthecentralteamofPhilips,therespondentssentintheirresponses.

4.1.1.GeneralDemographicsGeneraldemographicscovercriterialikeyearsofexperience,certificationstatusandaverageprojectsize

oftheprojectmanagersinIndiaandChina.Thegeneraldemographicsofthepopulationcanbeseenin

Table4,Table5andTable6.Table4showstheyearsofexperienceoftheprojectmanagersinbothIndia

andChina.Thecumulativepercentageofprojectmanagersthatarepresentintheyearsofexperience

between0-8yearswas73%ofthetotalpopulation.Theremaining27%accountedforprojectmanagers

withmorethan8yearsofexperience,whoareabletoguidethelessexperiencedprojectmanagers.There

isanapproximateratioof1:3(experienced:inexperience)projectmanagersonanaverageconsidering

bothmarketstogether.

Table4:Yearsofexperienceofthesamplepopulation

Yearsofexperience Frequency Percent 0-3 20 334-8 24 409-12 12 2012+ 4 7Total 60 100

Table5describesthecertificationstatusoftheprojectmanagersinbothIndiaandChina.Thecertification

consideredforthecertificationstatusistheProjectManagementProfessional(PMP).PMPisthemost

recognized certification in the projectmanagement industry (Snyder, 2014). Only 28% of the project

33

managerswerecertifiedwithPMPandtheremaining72%werenotcertified.Thereweresomeproject

managersintheentirepopulationwhowerenotcertifiedinPMPbutinothercertificationslikePhilips

Foundation certification and Philips practitioner certification. This was found to be the internal

certification of Philips in project management. Eventhough, the number of PMP certified project

managersarelessinnumber,weseethatthereareothercertificationsthathavebeendoneinternallyby

projectmanagersatPhilips.

Table5:CertificationStatus(PMP)ofthesamplepopulation

CertificationStatus(PMP)Frequency PercentCertified 17 28NotCertified 43 72Total 60 100

Theaverageprojectsizeisusedtodeterminethevalueoftheprojecthandledbytheprojectmanagersin

India andChina. In table 6,weobserve that 42%of theprojects handledbyprojectmanagers in the

aforementionedmarketsweresmall insize,meaningtheiraveragevaluewas lessthan1millioneuro.

Further,30%oftheprojectsweremediumsizedprojectswithanaveragevalueof1-2millioneuroand

28%oftheprojectswerelargeinsizewithanaveragevaluegreaterthan2millioneuros.Therearemore

numberofsmallsizedprojectsandanequalnumberofmediumandlargesizedprojectshandledbythe

projectmanagersinIndiaandChina.

Table6:Averageprojectsizeofthesamplepopulation

Averageprojectsize Frequency Percent Smallproject 25 42Mediumproject 18 30Largeproject 17 28Total 60 100

34

The general demographicshelpedus identify thedifferent criteriaof thepopulation for this research

study.Theyearsofexperience,certificationstatusandtheaverageprojectsizeoftheprojectmanagers

involvedwerediscussed.Further,wewouldlookatthedistributionofthedataandappropriatetestsfor

statisticalanalysis.

4.1.2.SkewnessandkurtosisThe 2 important factors that determine the distribution of data are the pointiness (kurtosis) and the

symmetry(skewness).Whenthedataisnormallydistributed,thecurveissymmetricalaroundthecentre.

Ifnot,thenthedataisnotnormallydistributed(Field,2013).

Theskewnessvalueofthedatawasfoundtobe0.655forSoftSkill,0.636forHardSkilland2.097forKPIs.

TheZ-value(Skewness/Std.error)forskewnesswascalculatedtobe2.11,2.058and6.786forvariables

SoftSkill,HardSkillandKPIsrespectively.TheZ-valueforskewnessshouldliebetweenthevalue-1.96to

+1.96tobenormallydistributed(Field,2013).Since,theZ-valuedoesnotliebetween-1.96and+1.96,

SoftSkill,HardSkillandKPIsarenotnormallydistributed.

Thekurtosisvalueforthedatawasfoundouttobe0.558forthevariableSoftSkill,0.008forHardSkill

and7.353forKPIs.TheZ-value(Kurtosis/Std.error)forkurtosisiscalculatedtobe0.917,0.01and12.09

forvariablesSoftSkill,HardSkillandKPIsrespectively.TheZ-valueforskewnessshouldliebetweenthe

value-1.96to+1.96tobenormallydistributed(Field,2013).Eventhough,theHardSkillandSoftSkilllie

between-1.96to+1.96,KPIsarewellabovetherange.Hence,weconcludethatthedataisnotnormally

distributed.

Table7:KurtosisandSkewnessfordistributionofdata

Skewness and Kurtosis of data

Soft Skill Hard Skill KPIs Skewness ,655 ,636 2,097 Std. Error of Skewness ,309 ,309 ,309 Kurtosis ,558 ,008 7,353 Std. Error of Kurtosis ,608 ,608 ,608

SincethevariablesSoftSkills,HardSkillsandKPIsdonotsatisfyboththeKurtosisandSkewnesstest,the

dataisnotnormallydistributed.Anon-parametrictestisusedusuallywhenthereisnotanormal

35

distribution(Field,2013).Spearman’srhocorrelationcoefficientwhichisanon-parametricstatisticwas

usedtofindtherelationshipsbetweenthevariablesintheresearchstudy.

Themainfocusoftestingthehypothesisofthisresearchstudyistocomeupwithamultipleregression

model.Tocomeupwithamultipleregressionmodeltherearepre-requisitestosatisfyinordertoruna

regressionmodel. They are scatterplots, correlations andmulticollinearity. The scatterplots of all the

hypothesiscanbefoundintheAppendix.Thecorrelationsandmulticollinearitytestscanbefoundunder

sub-sections4.2,4.3and4.4.Themulticollinearitywillnotbeaproblemforhypothesis1andhypothesis

2asthereisonlyoneindependentvariablewhereasinthecaseofthe3rdhypothesis,multicollinearity

testsareperformedtofindpossibleinteractionswithintheindependentvariables.Finally,aregression

modelanalysisbasedonallthehypothesisisdoneandthecoefficientsineachoftheregressionmodelis

explainedontheconceptualmodel.

4.2.FindingsrelatedtoHypothesis1 Thefirsthypothesisstatedthatscopemanagementinfluencesnegotiation.Spearman’srhocorrelation

coefficientisusedtomeasurethecorrelationbetweenthe2identifiedvariables(Field,2013).Thereisa

significant correlation between the chosen variables negotiation and scope management with a

correlationcoefficientvalueof0.391whichcanbefoundinTable*.Thep-valuewaslowerthan0.01and

hence,thecorrelationissignificant.

Table8:RelationshipbetweenScopeManagementandNegotiation

Negotiation

Scope

Management

Spearman's rho Negotiation 1,000

Scope Management ,391** 1,000

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

4.3.FindingsrelatedtoHypothesis2Thesecondhypothesisstatedthathumanresourcemanagementinfluencesteambuilding.Spearman’s

rhocorrelationcoefficientisusedtomeasurethecorrelationbetweenthe2identifiedvariables(Field,

2013).Thereisasignificantcorrelationbetweenthechosenvariableshumanresourcemanagementand

36

teambuildingwithacorrelationcoefficientvalueof0.365whichcanbefoundinTable9.Thep-valuewas

lowerthan0.01andhence,thecorrelationissignificant.

Table9:RelationshipbetweenHumanResourceManagementandTeamBuilding

Team

Building

Human

Resource

Management

Spearman's rho Team Building 1,000

Human Resource

Management

,365** 1,000

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

4.4.FindingsrelatedtoHypothesis3The third hypothesis stated that competencies influence KPIs positively. Spearman’s rho correlation

coefficientisusedtomeasurethecorrelationbetweenthevariableshardskills,softskillsandKPIsbased

oncost,timeandquality.Thecorrelationvaluewasfoundtobe0.670betweenthehardandsoftskills.

This showed that therewas a severemulticollinearity problem that ariseswhen there is a regression

modelforthisrelationship.However,wealsoseethattherearenosignificantcorrelationsbetweenthe

hardandsoftskillswitheithercost,timeorqualitybasedKPIs.Thevaluesforthecorrelationareshown

inTable10.

Table10:Correlationsbetweenhard,softskillsandKPIbasedoncost,timeandquality

Correlations

Hard Skills Soft Skills Cost based Time based Quality based

Hard Skills 1

Soft Skills ,670** 1

Cost based -,015 ,076 1

Time based -,005 -,117 ,073 1

Quality based -,051 ,097 ,079 ,038 1

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

37

ThesummaryofthemultipleregressionresultsisexplainedinTable11.“Rvalue”explainsthecorrelation

betweentheindependentvariable(IV)andthedependentvariable(DV)inthestudy.Forexample,inthe

first hypothesis, the DV is scopemanagement and the independent variable is negotiation. The “R2”

explainstheamountofvariationintheDVaccountedbytheregressionmodel.Forexample,15.8%ofthe

varianceinscopemanagementiscausedbynegotiationskills.“ANOVA”ortheAnalysisofVariancetestis

usedtomeasureifthemodelcansignificantlypredicttheDV.Inhypothesis1,thep-valueforANOVAis

significantasthevalueisbelow0.01.“Unstandardizedcoefficients”arethosevaluethatformtheconstant

valueoftheIVinthemodel.The“t-value”explains iftheIVismakingasignificantcontributiontothe

regressionmodel.Thet-valuealsohasacontributiontotheUnstandardizedcoefficients(B)(Field,2013).

Figure3alsoillustratestheconceptualframeworkwiththeregressionresults.

Table11:Multipleregressionofallhypothesesintheconceptualmodel

Hypotheses Rvalue R2 ANOVA

(p-value)

Unstandardized

coefficients(B)

t-value p-value

Hypothesis

1

0.398 0.158 0.002** 0.531 3.302 0.002**

Hypothesis

2

0.299 0.089 0.020* 0.641 2.386 0.020**

Hypothesis

3(cost)

0.076 0.006 0.563NS 0.030 0.582 0.563NS

Hypothesis

3(time)

0.117 0.014 0.374NS -0.080 -0.896 0.374NS

Hypothesis

3(quality)

0.097 0.009 0.459NS 0.059 0.745 0.459NS

*indicatessignificanceatp<0.05**indicatessignificanceatp<0.01,NS-NotSignificant

38

Fig3:Conceptualframeworkwithresultsfromregression

Forthehypotheses1and2,wecanconcludefromtheregressionthatthereisasignificantrelationship

betweenscopemanagementandnegotiationandhumanresourcemanagementandteambuilding.There

isasignificantp-valueforANOVA,makingtheregressionmodelsignificant.Thenullhypothesesishence

acceptedforbothhypotheses1and2.Also,fromtheaboveregressions,wecanconcludethatthereare

nosignificantcorrelationsbetweenbothhardandsoftskillsandtheKPIsbasedoncost,timeandquality.

Hypothesis3facesseveremulticollinearityproblemsduetotherelationshipbetweenhardandsoftskills

andhenceonlyoneoftheskillswasusedinthemodel.Evenafterusingonlyeitheroftheskills,therewas

nosignificantrelationshipintheregressionmodelandhencethenullhypothesiswasrejected.

After finding the regression model based on the data, the influence of control variables-years of

experienceandcertificationstatusischeckedonthehardandsoftskills.

34.5.YearsofExperienceonhardandsoftskillsYearsofexperiencewasanimportantcontrolvariablethatwasincludedinthestudyinordertofindits

effectonthehardandsoftskills(Levensonetal.,2006).PartialCorrelationisastatisticalmethodusedto

3 The Chi-square tests did not yield useful and significant results and hence were not discussed as part of the results.

Hard Skills

• IntegrationManagement• ScopeManagement• Timemanagement• Costmanagement• HumanResourceManagement• CommunicationManagement• RiskManagement• StakeholderManagement

Soft Skills

• Leadership• TeamBuilding• ProblemSolving• ConflictResolution• Commitment• Negotiation• Workunderpressure• Attentiontodetail

KPIsCostbasedTimebasedQualitybased0.

641*

*

0.53

1**

0.030NS

-0.080NS

0.059NS

39

identifythecorrelationbetween2variableswhentheeffectsofothervariablesareheldconstant(Field,

2013).Thecorrelationsbetweenhardandsoftskillsaremeasuredwhenyearsofexperience iskepta

constantandtheresultingvarianceisgreaterthantheindividualvarianceobserved(29.05%vs38.3%)

from Table 12. The p-value is also less than 0.05 and hence there is a unique variance that years of

experienceofferasacontrolvariabletohardandsoftskills.

Table12:Partialcorrelationofyearsofexperienceandhard,softskills

Control Variables Hard Skill Soft Skill Years of Experience Hard Skill 1,000

Soft Skill ,619 1,000

4.6.CertificationonhardandsoftskillsCertificationwasanother importantcontrolvariablethatwas included inthestudy inordertofind its

effectonthehardandsoftskills(Levensonetal.,2006).PartialCorrelationwasalsousedtofindtheeffect

ofcertificationstatusonhardandsoftskills.Thecorrelationsbetweenhardandsoftskillsaremeasured

when certification status is kept a constant and the resulting variance is greater than the individual

varianceobserved(29.05%vs46.51%)fromTable13.Thep-valueisalsolessthan0.05andhencethere

isauniquevariancethatcertificationstatusoffersasacontrolvariabletohardandsoftskills.

Table13:PartialCorrelationofcertificationstatusandhard,softskills

Control Variables Hard Skill Soft

Skill Certification Hard Skill 1,000

Soft Skill ,682 1,000

Hence,weseethatyearsofexperienceandcertificationstatusplayanimportantroleincausingvariance

inbothhardandsoftskillwhenincluded.

40

4.7.AdditionalrelationshipsThehardskillsandsoftskillswerefoundtohavecorrelationsamongstthemselves.Thispartoftheresults

sectionwilldiscusssuchcorrelations.

Inhardskills, integrationmanagementwashighlycorrelated toscopemanagementwhile stakeholder

managementwascorrelatedtocommunicationmanagement.Scopemanagementandriskmanagement

were also highly correlated. Additionally, product knowledge and scope management had a high

correlation. In soft skills, team building had the highest correlation with commitment among other

correlations.Similarly,negotiationhadahighcorrelationwithworkpressure.Leadershipalsohadahigh

correlationwithcommitmentwhileattentiontodetailandconflictresolutionhadahighcorrelationwith

negotiation.ThecorrelationvaluesareavailableaspartoftheAppendix.

Theserelationshipsalsotellusthatthepeoplewhoperformprojectworkshouldreallybewellequipped

enoughtohandletheproject(Cowie,2003).Theserelationshipsalsotellusthattheprojectmanagers

shouldimproveboththehardandsoftskillsequallytodriveprojectsuccessasbothskillsareimportant

(Turner&Huemann,2000).

Thereweremanyrelationshipsbetweenthehardandsoftskills.Thehardskillshadsignificantcorrelations

withleadership,commitment,conflictresolution,commitment,workingunderpressure,problemsolving

andattention todetail.This isalso inaccordancethat technical skillsarenotenoughtobesuccessful

projectmanagersbutcombinethattechnicalskillswithsoftskillstobeeffective(Gillard,2009).Thevalues

ofthecorrelationsbetweenthehardandsoftskillscanbefoundintheAppendix.

41

5.Discussion5.1.DiscussionregardingH1The data analysis significantly confirms the first hypothesis which states that scope management

influencesnegotiation.Thisresult is inaccordancewiththeauthors (Meredith&Mantel Jr,2011)and

(Edum-Fotwe&McCaffer,2000).Thepossiblereasonscouldbenegotiationskillsareusedtodetermine

thescopeobjectivesandchangeofscope.Englund(2010)alsoreiteratestheimportanceindetermining

thescopeandalsoagreeonthescopeoftheprojectwithalltheinvolvedstakeholders(Englund,2010).

Schulz(2008)explainshowthesoftskillslikenegotiationneedtobeembeddedinhardskillslikescope

management and in turn improve both the skills (Schulz, 2008). The interviewswith the experts also

revealedthatscopemanagementandnegotiationarerelated.Theexperts interviewalsorevealedthe

importanceofnegotiationas“theprojectmanagergivesintoafewbargainsandwinsfewbargainswith

stakeholders,butitisimportantwhereandwhentonegotiateintheproject”.Ontheotherhand,scope

managementwasincludedas“inorderfortheprojectmanagertoagreeonwhattheprojectentailsto

delivertothecustomeratthestartoftheproject”.Bothscopemanagementandnegotiationdealswith

agreeingwitheachofthestakeholdersanddecidingthescopeofaproject,whichexplainstherelationship

betweenthetwoskills.Hence, theresults forhypothesis1arealso in linewith the literatureandthe

interviews.

5.2.DiscussionregardingH2TheregressionanalysisconfirmsthatthesecondhypothesiswhichstatesthatHRMisinfluencedbyteam

buildingissignificantwithap-valueof0.002fortheregressionmodel..Thisresultisinaccordancewith

theauthors(Dingetal.,2015;Starkweather&Stevenson,2011).Thepossiblereasonsfortherelationship

couldbethattraininganddevelopmentisimportanttodevelopcapabilitiesinHRM.Thisinturn,helpsto

bringaboutorganizationalchange.Oneimportantaspectoftraininganddevelopmentisteambuilding

whichexplainsthepossiblesignificantcorrelationwithHRM.HRMalsofocussesonsoftskilltrainingin

ordertodevelophumanresourcesthatwouldleadtoenhancedperformanceandprofitability(Menon,

2012).TheexpertinterviewalsoexplainsHRMas“shouldbeabletohandletheprojectpersonneland

makesuretherightpersonisdoingtherightjob”andteambuildingas“theprojectmanagerhasaclear

viewofwhatisexpectedoftheteamandhowtohelpdevelopthemforthefuture.”Hence,teambuilding

plays a significant role in influencing one aspect of HRMwhich is important to help develop project

personnelinthefuture.ThepossiblereasonforthesignificancecouldalsobethatbothHRMandteam

buildingareusedtohandletheprojectteamandalsodeveloptheprojectpersonnelforthefuture.

42

5.3.DiscussionregardingH3ThethirdhypothesisstatesthatcompetenciesareinfluencedpositivelybyKPIs.Therewasnosignificance

inneitherthescatterplotsandcorrelationsnorinthemultipleregressionanalysisobtained.Hencethe

null hypothesiswas rejected. The results are in accordancewith (Fayek&Omar, 2016). The possible

reasonsforthelackofsignificancecouldbethatthechosenprojectcompetenciesmaynotbesuitablefor

assessment. Thismay very well be possible because project competencies require detailing that can

possiblycapturethebehaviour.Theauthorsexplainthatprojectcompetenciesareoftendescribedina

broadsensebasedonafewperformanceindicators.Thismightbeapossiblereasonfortheinaccurate

evaluationofcompetencies (Markus,Thomas,&Allpress,2005).Theregressionanalysisalsobacksup

claimsthatcompetenciesareseldomusedasleadingindicators(Levensonetal.,2006).Anotherpossible

reason for the lack of significance of correlation is the establishment of a competency system. The

establishmentofacompetencybasedsystemintheorganizationplaysakeyroleinthecompetencies,

influencing the performance based on KPIs (Levenson et al., 2006). A competency system includes;

competencylevels,humancapitalvariables,understanding,perceivedfairnessandmentoringaspartof

thesystem(Levensonetal.,2006).Thiskindofsystemmayhelpindevelopmentoftheprojectmanagers

andalsoinfluencetheperformancebasedoncost,timeandqualitypositively.Thiscompetencysystem

servesasarecommendationtoPhilipsHealthcareandforcompaniesingeneral.Hence,theformulation

ofacompetencysystemmaybethenextstepsintermsoffurtherresearch.

43

6.Conclusionandfurtherresearch Thehardskillandsoftskillattributeofcompetenciesplayanimportantroleforprojectmanagers.The

projectmanagersbenefitalotbydevelopingthesecompetenciesandsupporttheimprovementofproject

performance (Levenson et al., 2006). This study entailed five sub research questions thatwere to be

answered.Thefirstsubresearchquestionwas“Whatarethehardskillsthatarerequiredbyaproject

manager?”.Anextensiveliteraturestudywasfirstconductedtoidentifytheimportanthardskillsrequired

foraprojectmanagerfollowedbyinterviewswithexpertstonarrowdownthenumberofimportanthard

skills for project manager to a manageable number. The hard skills that were required by a project

manager include integrationmanagement, scopemanagement, costmanagement, timemanagement,

stakeholder management, human resource management, communication management, risk

management. The second sub research questionwas “What are the soft skills that are required by a

projectmanager?”.Similartothehardskillsabove,anextensiveliteraturestudyfollowedbyinterviews

withexpertswasdonetonarrowdownthenumberofimportantsoftskillstoamanageablenumber.The

softskillsthatwererequiredbyaprojectmanager includeleadership,teambuilding,problemsolving,

attentiontodetails,negotiation,conflictresolution,workunderpressureandcommitment.Thethirdsub

researchquestionwas“WhatKPIsareusedtomeasuretheprojectperformance?”.Anextensiveliterature

studywasdoneinordertofindoutthemostcommonlyusedKPIstomeasureprojectperformance.The

literature review concluded on three KPIs, namely: cost performance, time performance and quality

performance.Theidentifiedhardskills,softskillsandtheKPIsbasedoncost,timeandqualitywereused

toformulatetheconceptualframework.

The fourthand fifth sub researchquestionswere“Howare theKPIs influencedby thehardskillsofa

projectmanager?”and“HowaretheKPIsinfluencedbythesoftskillsofaprojectmanager?”.Theanswers

tothefourthandfifthsubresearchquestionweredeterminedempirically.Therewasnosignificancein

theregressionanalysisbetweenthehardskillsandKPIsandthesoftskillsandtheKPIs.Therewerethree

hypotheses derived from the extensive literature review that helped answer the fourth and fifth sub

research question. The first and the second hypothesis demonstrates how scope management is

influencedbynegotiationandalsothe influenceof teambuildingonHRM.Boththehypothesishada

significantp-valuefortheregressionmodelderived.Eventhough,therewerenosignificantrelationships

betweenthehardandsoftskillswiththeKPIs,theresearchhelpsinaddingtheexistingliteratureofhow

softandhardskillsareequallyimportantforprojectmanagers.Thethirdhypothesisanswersthequestion

byfindingthattherewasnosignificantrelationshipbetweenthehardandsoftskillsandtheKPIsbased

oncost,timeandquality.Thiswasverifiedthroughthescatterplots,correlationsandregressionanalysis

44

conductedwiththehardskills,softskillsasindependentvariablesandKPIsbasedoncost,timeandquality

asthedependentvariables.

From this study,we learn that a competency systemshouldbeput inplace inorder to influence the

performanceofCPMsratherthanusingasimplemechanismofmeasuringcompetencies(Levensonetal.,

2006).Thisalsoservesasastartingpointforfurtherresearchtofindtheinfluenceofcompetencieson

KPIs.However,moreresearchneedstobedonetodevelopacompetencysystemspecifictoPhilipsand

tofindtherelationshipsbetweenprojectmanagementcompetenciesandKPIs.

Anotherinterestingfindingofthisresearchistheinfluenceofyearsofexperienceandcertificationstatus

andtheamountofvariancetheycauseonthehardandsoftskills.Sincetherewererelationshipsbetween

scopemanagementandnegotiationandhumanresourcemanagementandteambuildingrespectively,

there might be more such relationships which can be a point for further studies. The linking of

competenciesandprojectperformanceneedstobestillstandardizedsothatthesystemcanbeadopted

irrespectiveofindustrywhichisalsointerestingforfurtherstudy.Anotheraspectforfurtherresearchis

toidentifyastrategytocreateasuitablecompetencysystemwhichcaninfluenceKPIsandhenceimprove

projectperformance.

45

7.LimitationsofResearchThisresearchwasdoneonlyinthemarketsofIndiaandChina.Theimpactofthisresearchonotherparts

oftheworldisoneareaforfurtherresearch.Anotherlimitationistheculturalbarrierandtheworking

stylesexhibitedbydifferentmarketsastheyaredifferentfordifferentcountries.

Togainahighreliabilityinthisstudy,itisimportantthatthequestionnaireisveryclear.Theparticipants

mustunderstandeverysinglequestionandthequestionnaireshouldnothaveambiguousquestions.Since

thequestionnairewassentviaemailtheremightbepossibilitiesofconfusionforcertainquestions.The

researchdesignusedisacrosssectionaldesignandthedatareceivedfromtheprojectmanagersonly

explainthecompetenciesofprojectmanagersatonepointintime.Thequestionnaireishandedtothe

projectmanagers todoa self-assessmentandhence theremightbe somebias in the responses. The

numberofparticipantsinthisstudywereverylessasthiswasdoneonlyinthemarketsofIndiaandChina.

Whenthisstudyisextendedtoothermarkets,thenthereismoredatainordertoconductmorestatistical

analysislikefactoranalysis.

46

8.Appendix Interview Guide for experts

1. How long is this project being done and what was done before to know the level of competence of project managers?

2. Why are competencies important for project managers at Philips? 3. What are the most important competencies with regards to project management hard

skills according to you? 4. What are the most important competencies with regards to project management soft skills

according to you? 5. Choose from the list of competencies derived from literature the most important for

project managers in Philips? 6. Why were each of the competencies selected and why are they important to the project

managers at Philips? 7. Do you think any other competencies should be added to this list other than these? 8. Do you think as a project manager, year of experience and certification play a role in

developing competencies? 9. Why is it important to link competencies and performance? 10. Any other KPI other than SS, DPQ, PBV that are important to track the performance of a

CPM?

Questionnaire for CPMs with the variable names used in SPSS

QuestionVariableused Source

Gender GENDERGeneralDemographics

Whatisyouremailid? -GeneralDemographics

Yearsofexperienceasaprojectmanager(includingexperiencesinothercompanies) YOE LiteratureWhatisyourcertificationstatus?(PMPCertification) CERT1 LiteraturePleasementionanyotherProjectManagementrelatedcertificationsifcompleted.Ifnot,typeN/A -

GeneralDemographics

Whatisyourmarketname? MARKETGeneralDemographics

Integrationmanagement:Iamabletoprioritizemytasksbasedonprojectobjectives IM1 Literature

47

Iamabletointegratethedifferentprojectmanagementprocesseslikeinitiation,planning,execution,monitoringandcontrollingandclosing IM2 LiteratureScopeManagement:Iamabletofrequentlymonitorthescopeoftheprojecttoidentifychanges SM1 LiteratureIamabletovalidatethescopeoftheprojectatthebeginningoftheproject SM2 LiteratureTimeManagement:Iamabletoquicklyrespondtotheclient'schanges TM1 LiteratureIamabletocompletetheprojectonschedule TM2 LiteratureCostManagement:Iamabletovalidatethecostofresourcesfortheproject CM1 LiteratureIamabletomonitorcostoverruns CM2 LiteratureHumanResourceManagement:Thereareadequateprojectpersonnelfortheproject HRM1 LiteratureTherearemanyteambuildingactivitiesorganizedfortheteam HRM2 LiteratureTrainingisgivenregularlytoallprojectpersonnel HRM3 LiteratureCommunicationsManagement:Ihaveagoodworkingrelationshipwiththeclient COM1 LiteratureIoftencommunicatewiththeclienttomakesuretheprojectisgoingasperplan COM2 LiteratureIoftencommunicatewithmyteammemberstomakesurethattheprojectobjectiveisclear COM3 LiteratureRiskManagement:Iamabletohandlemajorrisksinmyproject RM1 LiteratureIamabletocontroltheresource/supplyavailability RM2 LiteratureStakeholderManagement:Iamabletoworkwiththesuppliersoftheproduct STAK1 LiteratureIamabletoworkwithtechnicalpeopletoinstallthehealthsystem STAK2 LiteratureProductKnowledge:Ihaveknowledgeaboutallthecurrentproductsavailable PROD1 InterviewIhavetheknowledgeaboutallthenewproductsthatareavailable PROD2 InterviewIleadbyexampleinaproject LEAD1 LiteratureIworkashardasanyoneinthegroup LEAD LiteratureIsolvetheproblemsthatariseintheprojectindividually PROB1 LiteratureIcollaboratewiththeteamtosolvetheproblems PROB2 Literature

48

Iaminvolvedintakingthedecisionsregardingtheworkload COMMIT1 LiteratureMyworkcontributestotheorganizationatlarge COMMIT2 LiteratureIencouragetheteammemberstoexpressideas/suggestions TEAM1 LiteratureIlistentoteamsuggestionstomakedecisionsregardingtheteam TEAM2 LiteratureIdealwithconflictinarationalway CONF1 LiteratureIseekandexposetheunderlyingrootcauseoftheconflict CONF2 LiteratureIamabletocreateagoodworkingrelationshipwhenworkingwithpeople NEGO1 LiteratureIamabletounderstandtheinterestsofstakeholderstocreatecommonground. NEGO2 LiteratureIamabletohandleunrestintheteam WUP1 LiteratureIamabletoworkwithaclearmindwhentheprojectisnotgoingasperplan. WUP2 LiteratureImakesurethattheprojectiswelldocumented ATD1 LiteratureImakesuretheprojectfollowsstandardprocedures ATD2 LiteratureWhatistheaveragesizeofyourcurrentproject? AVGSIZE LiteratureThecostoftheprojectisonbudget CP1 LiteratureThecostoftheprojectisoverbudget CP2 LiteratureThetimetakentocompletetheprojectisonschedule TIME1 LiteratureThetimetakentocompletetheprojectisbehindschedule TIME2 LiteratureTheprojectishighquality(eg.thecorrectdetailsoftheorderarecollectedandmaintained) QP1 LiteratureTheprojectisofmoderatequality(eg.thecorrectdetailsoftheorderarecollectedbutnotmaintainedproperly) QP2 LiteratureIfthereareothercompetenciesthatyouwouldliketobeincluded,pleasementionso.Ifnot,N/A. - - Correlations between hard and soft skills

49

Hard/Soft Skills Leadership

Team Building

Problem Solving

Conflict Resolution Commitment Negotiation

Work Under pressure

Attention to Detail

Integration Management 0.516** 0.391** 0.378** 0.534** 0.327* 0.285* 0.296* Scope Management 0.328* 0.332** 0.477** 0.317* 0.391** 0.324* 0.302* Time Management 0.362** 0.402** 0.326* Cost Management 0.428** 0.380** 0.287* 0.341** Human resource Management 0.365** 0.370** 0.307* 0.268* Communication Management 0.436** 0.484** 0.462** 0.443** 0.430** 0.407** Risk Management 0.387** 0.299* 0.449** 0.310* 0.384** 0.424** 0.266* Stakeholder Management 0.438** 0.469** 0.374** 0.359** 0.301* Product knowledge -0.281* 0.322* 0.272* *P<0.05 **P<0.01 Definitions of Knowledge areas for questionnaire

Knowledge area Definition

Project Integration Management To identify, define, combine and integrate project management activities and processes

Project Scope Management Make sure that the project delivers on the scope that has accepted and make sure the project stays within scope.

Project Time Management Make sure that the project is completed on time and delays are avoided

Project Cost Management Used to determine the costs for budget by planning, estimating and controlling and make sure the cost will suffice for the project and complete within budget.

Project Quality Management Used to determine the quality policies, quality assurances that was accepted during the beginning of the project and make sure they are delivered.

Project Human Resource Management Used to manage the project team

50

Project Communication Management Used to make sure that proper communication of project information takes place.

Project Risk Management Involved in managing the risks of the project and provide risk management planning, identification, implementation and monitoring.

Project Procurement Management Required to purchase products, services from outside the project team in order to complete the required work.

Project Stakeholder Management Deals with the different stakeholders

The 10 knowledge areas as defined by Project Management Institute and the Process groups

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Scatterplots for multiple regression analysis Scatterplot between scope management and negotiation

Scatterplot between human resource management and team building

Scatterplot between soft skills and cost performance

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Scatterplot between soft skills and time performance

Scatterplot between soft skills and quality performance

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Scatterplot between hard skills and time performance

Scatterplot between hard skills and cost performance

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Scatterplot between hard skills and quality performance

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