Abstract
The research aim was to identify the skills required for the project managers to manage change to give input to the development plan of project managers. The skills were identified through a comprehensive literature study. Ten interpersonal skills were identified as the required skills for a project manager to be able to direct or manage a change process in a project. A questionnaire was developed following a guide from literature findings on the skill-set required for a project manager. A questionnaire was developed to answer two research questions. The score ratings were to measure the level of importance of the skills and measure it against the scored level of use and that was the first part of a questionnaire to answer the first research question. The second research question was to validate the skills identified by measuring the level of impact of each skill during a change process. The research methodology and the approach taken was a case study in a single projectbased organization. The participants subject to the study were project managers, engineering managers, engineers, and project support staff. The data received from the participants was analyzed in a cohort manner, using a quantitative framework to get to the results. The results obtained showed that across all four groups, two skills out of ten identified were strongly agreed on. Communication skills came out strong, followed by leadership skills. Furthermore, the score ratings showed that the skills are less used as opposed to the level of importance giving the conclusion that a project manager does not apply the required skills to the level at which they are required to manage change during project implementation. Further studies are recommended to be carried out to see why are the skills less utilized by the project managers. A project manager must learn from past mistakes and bad results as a tool towards self-development. Furthermore, for a project manager’s self-development, they must look at IPMA ICB4 Eye of Competence and PMI, PMCDF that defines integrated change control processes with performance criteria.
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)