The low retention rate of information technology (IT) project managers from a region in the southeastern United States has increased an organization's operational costs and decreased the organization's global competitiveness. The conceptual foundation for this study was the resource-based theory of competitive advantage. This multiple case study explored IT project managers' perceptions of the factors that contributed to their retention. Participants in the study included 10 IT project managers with at least 5 years of experience who were also members of a chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Semistructured interviews were conducted via teleconference to collect data that were subjected to a thematic analysis. Three key themes emerged from the analysis: an understanding of project management, challenging work, and certification support. The results of the study might provide those individuals in charge of hiring IT project managers with criteria that define what these IT project managers require as well what benefits can be offered and what methods can be applied in retaining these IT Project Managers. Findings from the study have implications for positive social change by contributing to the project management body of knowledge, positioning companies competitively, and effectively engaging IT project managers.

Reklambranschen är en bransch som lägger mycket fokus och stort värde på skapandet av originalitet och nytänkande för att frambringa effektiva lösningar. Reklam handlar om att påverka en individ och skapa reaktioner, vilket kan leda till att personen köper den marknadsförda produkten eller tjänsten. En reklambyrås vardag är att arbeta med flera olika uppdrag i varierade storlekar och projektledaren kan leda runt tjugo projekt samtidigt. Projektgruppen har en ständigt tuff utmaning att överträffa sig själva och kundens önskemål för att slå igenom marknaden samt nå ut till konsumenten. Projektledaren har en viktig roll i denna process genom att både leda sina medarbetare och att motivera dem till att vara kreativa. Denna studie har som syfte att studera samt ge exempel på hur projektledare på en reklambyrå motiverar kreativiteten hos projektdeltagarna. För att besvara forskningsfrågan har semistrukturerade intervjuer gjorts där respondenterna fick möjlighet att fördjupa sig i varje fråga. Totalt fyra intervjuer genomfördes på fyra olika projektledare, varav två arbetade på samma byrå. I studien ges en djupare förståelse för kreativitet, motivation, organisationsklimat och ledarskap, och är de fyra teoriavsnitt som studien är uppbyggd kring och som presenteras i teorikapitlet. Analysen använder sedan samma indelning vid genomgången av empirin. Undersökningen visade bland annat att projektledare på en reklambyrå upplever en ständig, men samtidigt stimulerande utmaning, då projektgruppen ska vara kreativ inom vissa ramar, önskemål och förväntningar. Med den press som byråerna har att alltid prestera och leverera nya idéer är det viktigt att organisationsklimatet och projektledaren främjar samt motiverar kreativiteten bland de anställda. Studien fann inget gemensamt arbetssätt eller ledarskap för att stötta kreativa idéer och att motivera för kreativitet. Varje projektledare anpassar sitt ledarskap utifrån hur mycket motivation som behövs. Studien visar tydligt att samtliga är helt överens om vikten av kreativt arbete i projekten, men att mångfalden av hur den hanteras är slående. Exempel på hur olika projektledarna motiverar sina projektdeltagare är att ledarna inspirerar dem genom att sprida positiv energi, skapa en vi-känsla och att själva delta i det kreativa arbetet. Trots att det finns olika teorier om hur en ledare bör agera för att hantera kreativa människor använder projektledarna i denna studie ingen särskild metod, utan ser varje individ som unik. De anser att alla har olika behov, motiv och personligheter, samt att de också behöver motivera efter situation och projekt. / The focus in the advertising business is on creating original solutions. Advertising is all about affecting an individual and to make reactions, which could lead to a person buying the promoted product or service. The everyday life of an advertising agency is to work with multiple quests in different sizes and the project manager can manage up to twenty projects at a time. The project group has a constant challenge to excel not only themselves but also the wishes of the client to break through the market and reach out to the consumer. The project manager has therefore an important role in this process to both manage their coworkers and motivate for creativity. The purpose of this study is to find examples of how a project manager at an advertising agency motivates their coworkers to be creative. Semi structured interviews have been used to answer this research’s question, where the respondents had the opportunity to develop their answers. A total of four interviews were made with four different project managers, where two of them work at the same agency. The theoretical foundation of the study is based on four different areas; creativity, motivation, organizations climate and leadership. The same areas are used in the analysis when handling the empirical results. The study revealed that project managers at an advertising agency experience a persistent, but at the same time stimulating challenge. The team needs to be very creative, and at the same time adhere to certain boundaries, requests and expectations. With the pressure that the teams face to perform and deliver original ideas, it is important for the project managers to motivate their coworkers to be creative and to create an organizational climate that stimulates creativity. The study didn’t find a common view among the project managers’ on leadership or on how to stimulate the creativity of their colleagues. Each project manager had their own way of managing their coworkers’ creativity and they adapt their leadership to the level of motivation that the group needs. The study clearly shows that the project managers agree upon the importance of creativity in their projects. Nevertheless the diversity of how this is handled is striking. To inspire with positive energy, to create a “we-feeling” in the group and to participate in the creative process are some examples of how the project managers motivate their coworkers. Even though there are different theories on how a manager should handle creative people, the project managers’ in this study see every individual as unique instead of using a particular method. They consider that everybody has different needs, motives, personalities and that they need to adapt the level of motivation to every situation and project.

The purpose of this paper has been to describe the project manager's experience of the customer relationship in customer order projects. A qualitative interview study has been conducted in which seven project managers were interviewed. A thematic analysis resulted in four overall themes. The results showed the importance of a clear, responsive and open communication as well as a large degree of customization to meet the customer the best way as possible. The experience was also characterized by a dynamic relationship and the importance of the customer's expectations. The project manager's characteristics and experience were very important in all themes and had a significant part in establishing and maintaining customers’ trust. / Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att beskriva projektledarens upplevelse av kundrelationen i kundorderprojekt. En kvalitativ intervjustudie har använts som undersökningsmetod där sju stycken projektledare har intervjuats. Analys av materialet har genomförts med en tematisk analys där fyra övergripande teman framkommit. Resultatet visade på kommunikationens betydelse av att vara tydlig, lyhörd och öppen samt en stor grad av anpassning för att bemöta kunden på bästa sätt. Upplevelsen präglades dessutom av en dynamik i relationen och där kundens förväntningar var betydelsefulla. Projektledarens egenskaper och erfarenhet spelade en stor roll i samtliga teman och visade sig vara viktiga i att etablera och bevara kundens förtroende.

Company F is a well-known petrochemical group in Taiwan. In the early stage of the company founded, the engineering manpower is not sufficient for construction project. All construction projects generally execute with a whip style organization. Into the growth stage in the 1970s, the manpower of the engineering department has been quite adequate with professional skill. In that time, the whip-style organization of plant construction project change to function-style organization model. After the start of the 1990s, a large petrochemical expansion project was start; more than 10 plant construction projects must be executed at the same time. Company F allowing the use of a whip-style project management model to save project manpower. In last 10 years, both of two project organization modes were used when the petrochemical expansion coming to an end. According to the past experience, part of project has been quite successful and part of project failing in schedule, quality and cost control. In this thesis, according to individual construction project practices evaluate the management procedure and mode. By following the engineering management standards of company F combined with the basic concept and theory of project management, supplemented by practical engineering experience to identify the key success factor for project management. And by the case study analyzing optimized project management model for engaging in plant construction project management to follow. This study will summarize the operation procedure of plant construction project management and the standard of project management organization by integration of existing project management specification and the experience of construction projects. That will compare with the literature of project management field and organizational model, than by the personal experience of construction project cases to evaluate the different point of project management field to find the successful and failed reason then find out key success factors. Followed by the combination of standard project organization, literatures of project organization mode and plant construction project cases evaluate what is the best project management model. The key success factors of construction project management can be used to improve the management of construction project for engineering department and company. By the analysis of the optimized construction project management model, the results could be referred for the future of all kinds¡¦ construction project. According to the results, that could supply the improving suggestion for engineering management execution of the engineering department to ensure more safety, quality, cost and schedule control on the construction management. KEY WORDS: Project Management,Construction Management,Project Organization,Project Manager,Construction Project,Key Success Factors

I dagens företagsklimat är en strategiskt planerad riskhantering något som inte alltid är högtprioriterat, utan något som man ser som ett hinder. Företagen grundar sina beslut i detfinansiella värdet och förbiser riskhanteringsarbetet. För att kunna hantera dessa svårighetermed att inte endast basera sina beslut på det påstådda finansiella värdet, tar denna studie upphur två stycken företag hanterar risker, samt hur riskhanteringsarbetet ser ut. Studien visar attföretagen inte har någon direkt strategisk planering kring riskhantering, utan en mer ad hocmässigsådan. Dock talas det om hur viktig riskhanteringen är, vilket gör det till ett intressantämne då det förekommer motsägelser. En tolkning är att branschen ochorganisationsstrukturen har stor påverkan på vilken riskhanteringsmetod som tillämpas. / In today’s business climate, clear and marked risk management is often not particularlyprioritized, but is instead something companies see as an obstacle or nuisance. A companyoften bases its decision on (non-risk adjusted) expected return, which often leads to ignoranceof inherent risks if the expected return is high. To deal with the difficulties of not only basingdecisions on non-risk adjusted return, this paper will show how two different companies dealwith risk and how highly prioritized risk management is. The main conclusion is thatcompanies do not have a particularly systematic management of risks, which makes the topicever more interesting, given the general interest and importance of risk management. Oneinterpretation of this conclusion is that the industry and the organizational structure have alarge influence on which risk management method that is used.

SAMMANFATTNING [SV] Projektledarens ansvar i ett projekt är att leda sin projektgrupp till uppsatta mål med fastställda kravspecifikationer. Dessa mål skall vara uppnådda inom en tidsanpassad och ekonomisk ram. För att nå dessa ramar bör en projektledare tidigt planera genomförandet och upprätta en ekonomisk plan för projektet. De konsekvenser som uppstår vid komplexa projekt då projektledaren inte förfogar över tillräcklig med kompetens leder till ekonomiska förluster samt ett misslyckat projekt. Vilka kompetenser bör en projektledare behärska? På vilka sätt behärskas dessa kompetenser? Med vilka verktyg eller metoder kan kompetenserna utnyttjas vid planeringen av projekten för att undvika problem? Det är dessa frågeställningar som för ihop denna studie om projektledarens kompetensutveckling i mål av att ta fram en kompetensutvecklings modell. Studien ger en blick över projektledningens alla stadier och vad projektledarens roll är i samtliga faser. Sedan beskrivs begreppet kompetens och hur individen utvecklar sin förmåga att leda projekt. Studien har genomförts i samarbete med byggföretaget JM AB där metoden för studien består av tre moment. En omfattande litteraturstudie har genomförts där det teoretiska perspektivet runt projektledning har analyserats. Intervjuer med projektledare och platsbesök genomfördes för en djupare förståelse över hur JM AB arbetar med tidsplaner och befintliga kompetensutvecklingsplaner. Studien påvisar att projektledarna på JM AB är främst delaktiga i tidiga skeden samt det avslutande skedet. I förstudien och planeringen är de främsta arbetsuppgifterna för projektledaren att fungera som en ackvisitör, upprätta olika ekonomiska budgetar samt att ta fram en huvudtidplan för det aktuella projektet. I genomförandet är det av stor vikt att projektledaren skapar en god sammanhållning mellan de inblandade parterna. På så sätt alstras en god klarhet mellan projektmedarbetarna och produktionen effektiviseras. Vid ett projektslut är det kunden som står i fokus. Där en god kommunikation emellan kunder, projektledare samt mäklare ger upphov till de förutsättningar som kunden behöver för inflyttning är till hands. Examensarbetet konstaterar att projekt oftast blir uppdelade mellan projektmedarbetare. Detta framför krav på att projektledaren ska inneha en bred kompetens, där helhetsbilden över projektet ansågs vara en viktig del av projektledarens kompetens. Följaktligen blir att fungera som kärnan i projektet kombinerad med den sociala kompetensen en central del. Vidare fastställde examensarbetet att projektledarens kompetensutveckling först och främst sker i det dagliga arbetet. Där erfarenhet från tidigare arbeten utgjorde den största kompetensutvecklingen. Förutom erfarenhetsläran bidrar även aktiviteter som formella kurser till en kompetensutveckling hos projektledaren. Studien belyser dessutom projektledarens varierande planeringsverktyg, där även en jämförelse dras mellan planeringsverktygen Powerproject och Microsoft Project. Genom jämförelsen mellan programmen dras slutsatser angående för och nackdelarna med programmen samt hur dessa bidrar till mindre ekonomiska förluster. / A project manager's responsibility in a project is to lead the project to specified goals with defined specifications. These goals must be achieved within a time related and economic framework. To achieve these goals, a project manager needs to early plan and implement a financial plan for the project. If the project manager lacks sufficient competence it may result in financial losses and failed project.  The present thesis was accomplished in collaboration with the construction company, JM AB, and the study consists of three parts. An extensive literature review has been conducted in which the theoretical perspective around the project have been analyzed. Interviews with project managers and site visits were conducted in order to achieve a deeper understanding of how JM works with timetables and existing competency development plans. The study shows that the project manager at JM AB is primarily involved in the early stages and the final stage of the project planning. Furthermore, this thesis showed that the project manager's skills development first of all takes place in daily work. In addition, the results showed that experience from previous work constitutes the most important skills development for the project managers and that activities such as formal courses also a contribute to stronger competence for the project manager.

Darbo tema UAB „Tiketa“ projektų vadovų klientų aptarnavimo proceso tobulinimas Darbo tikslas Įvertinti ir išanalizuoti bei pateikti rekomendacijas projektų vadovų klientų aptarnavimo proceso tobulinimui; Darbo uždaviniai • Nustatyti esamą projektų vadovų klientų aptarnavimo procesų grandinę bei įvertinti jos tobulintinas vietas; • Empiriškai įvertinti klientų aptarnavimo procesų neatitikimo priežastis bei problemos dydį; • Pasiūlyti veiksmus (rekomendacijas) aptarnavimo proceso tobulinimui; Tyrimo metodai • Giluminis interviu; • Stebėjimas; • Dokumentų analizė. Darbo rezultatai Darbo metu problemoms eliminuoti buvo pasiūlyta eilė vadybinių sprendimų, padėsiančių: 1.) Padidinti projektų vadovų naudingumą; 2.) Sumažinti klientų skundų skaičių; 3.) Sutrumpinti klientų aptarnavimo procesą; 4.) Palengvinti dokumentacijos pildymą; 5.) Išlaikyti ar padidinti klientų skaičių. / Work title Processes development of the project managers’ work with customers in JSC Tiketa. Work goal Measure, analyze and give recommendations for the project managers’ work with customers’ development; Work tasks • Identify process chain of the project managers and evaluate possible ways to develop it; • Empirically measure the reasons of inappropriate processes of project managers’ work with customers’ and size of the problem; • Give recommendations for the process development of the customer service. Methods of analysis • Depth interview; • Observation; • Documents analysis. Work outcomes There were recommended some actions to eliminate the problems, which would help to: 1.) Productivity increase of the project managers; 2.) Number decrease of the customer complaints; 3.) Shorten the process of the customer service; 4.) Simplify documentation filling. 5.) Save or increase number of the customers.

The coopetition (simultaneous focusing on cooperation and competition) between organizations and within organizations has received increasing attention from academia and practice. However, there is no guide on how coopetition can be encouraged. I discuss in how far leadership styles (Transformational, Transactional, laissez-faire, and Autocratic) can be utilized to enable coopetition between the project manager and functional manager and between the project managers as well within a matrix organization. Analyzing 16 semistructured interviews from a company located at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I explain that both transformational and transactional together (mixed style) can enhance the coopetition between the managers. Finally, I conclude implications as well as thoroughfares for future research.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo investigar as competências individuais dos gerentes de projetos. A abordagem metodológica utilizada combinou revisão sistemática de literatura, análise de oportunidades de emprego e estudos de casos. Ao final foi feita uma análise da perspectiva da literatura, dos profissionais das organizações e das demandas das empresas. A primeira etapa da pesquisa consistiu em uma revisão sistemática de literatura, adotando métodos de bibliometria e de análise de conteúdo. A base de dados da ISI Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) foi selecionada para compor a amostra. A segunda etapa foi composta pela análise das competências dos gerentes de projetos no processo de seleção, para tanto foram selecionados cinco websites brasileiros de recrutamento e seleção de colaboradores. Por último, para os estudos de casos, duas empresas foram selecionadas para identificar seu método de seleção e desenvolvimento de competências dos seus colaboradores. Por meio dos resultados da revisão de literatura foi possível identificar quatro categorias de competências: contextuais, gerenciais, técnicas e comportamentais. Além disso, a revisão sistemática de literatura permitiu identificar os principais autores do tema e os principais periódicos. Pela análise das vagas de emprego conseguiu-se identificar os pontos em comum existentes nas descrições das vagas de emprego e, em conjunto com a revisão de literatura, foi possível apontar o perfil de gerente de projetos esperado pelas organizações brasileiras: profissional formado, com experiência em projetos, com know-how técnico do tipo de projeto, com conhecimento da língua inglesa, líder, com habilidade de se comunicar, desenvolver novos negócios, planejar o projeto e se relacionar com o cliente. Os estudos de caso permitiram identificar que as organizações desenvolvem seu próprio modelo de competências ou realizam o desenvolvimento de maneira ad-hoc. Pela análise dos dados, foi possível concluir que existem competências, como ética e conhecimentos jurídicos, que são apontadas na teoria, mas na prática não são exigidas explicitamente. / This study aimed to investigate the individual competences of project managers. The methodological approach combined the systematic literature review, analysis of employment opportunities and case studies. At the end an analysis was made from the perspective of literature, professional organizations and the demands of enterprises. The first stage of the research consisted of a systematic review of literature, adopting methods of bibliometrics and content analysis. The ISI database Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) was selected for the sample. The second step was made by analyzing the skills of project managers in the selection process, therefore five Brazilian websites of recruitment and selection of employees were selected. Finally, for the case studies, 2 companies were selected to identify their methods of selection and development of competencies of their employees. Through literature review of results it was possible to propose a new competency model compound of 4 units: contextual, managerial, technical and behavioral competences. In addition, through systematic literature review was possible to identify the main authors and leading journals. By the job advertisements analysis was possible to identify the common points in job descriptions and, together with the literature review, it was possible to point out the project manager profile expected by the Brazilian organizations: bachelors degree, experienced in projects, industry specific know how, with knowledge of English, leader with ability to communicate, develop new business, plan the project and relate to the customer. Case studies have identified that organizations develop their own competency model or realize the development of their professionals in an ad-hoc way. By the data analysis, it was concluded that there are competencies such as ethics and legal expertise, which are identified in theory, but in practice are not clearly required.

IT projects serve as the foundation through which a number of organizationalInformation Technology benefits can be created. However, it appears to be acomplicated task with great economic consequences at stake to finish a project beforepositive results can be reached. Project closure, the very last phase of the project lifecycle, seems to be underrepresented in current research compared to the other phasesof the project life cycle. The research regarding postponed closure, meaning thatprojects, which technically are finished, are still allowed to continue, or projects thatare directly unfeasible and therefore should be prematurely terminated, is even moreabsent. This indicates that problems arise somewhere, which is what will beinvestigated in this study.The aim of this study is to gain an understanding to the underlying reasons whycertain projects face a delayed closure, when they in reality should be finalizedearlier. In order to do so, a semi-structured interview study was carried out andpresented in a qualitative data analysis. The results of this study, based on empiricalfindings and support from theoretical frameworks, and presented in an analysis anddiscussion, indicates that there are a number of reasons that are causing postponedclosure. Among others, it has been noted that the planning for project closure maybegin too late in the process, that poor governance from the project manager and thesteering committee could be the result of hesitation to strict decision-making, and anunprepared receiving organization as a result of unsuccessful communication anddocumentation between internal and external stakeholders.