The article “A revaluation of the criticality of the project manager to the project’s success” by Alvarenga et al. (2018) presents a thorough investigation of the project manager’s role in the organization’s success. The authors first provide details of a quantitative study that proves the significance of project managers in the company’s success and then discuss the theoretical perspectives of their findings. The latter include the aspirations for acknowledging the role of the soft skills of project managers’ success, the need for balanced training, and the dangers of pressure for project managers’ psyche in the event of failure.
This article is fascinating given that, according to the authors, there is a severe shortage of quantitative research that supports the importance of project managers’ role in the organizations’ success. The study results showed that out of 740 participants randomly selected among project managers, managers, supervisors, consultants, more than 49% named the project manager’s role as “very much” related to the company’s success. Moreover, the project manager was named one of the seven hypercritical success factors among the total number of 35 critical factors. Interestingly, the scholars defined a new theoretical perspective by acknowledging that more attention to project managers’ soft skills should be paid. These skills are closely related to other hypercritical success factors: communication, top management support, project commitment, and client acceptance.
The scholars suggested that organizations should address more attention to providing training for the project managers to develop both hard and soft skills. It is imperative to overcome the historical gap between the traditional role of the project managers as administrators and their new role as managers and leaders. Pressures put on the project managers due to the increased levels of responsibility were also considered. The scientists noted that a substantial percentage of projects end up as failures, and project managers are often devastated by such outcomes. The scholars advised that project managers should receive organizational support to maintain their psychological health and stability.
Reference
Jefferson Carvalho Alvarenga, Robson Rosa Branco, André Bittencourt do Valle, Carlos Alberto Pereira Soares, and Wainer da Silveira e Silva. “A revaluation of the criticality of the project manager to the project’s success”. 2018.