Political Astuteness in Project Management : Could Street Smart Project Management be an Additional Dimension?

Abstract: Abstract The early years as a project manager are full of dangers and there is high risk of getting scars that follow you throughout your career and life. This thesis is a first step to study political astuteness in the project management context. Experienced project managers have been interviewed and shared their perceptions of political astuteness in their role as project manager. The results are presented in four main themes; “The Character of Political Astuteness in Project Management Context”, “The Dirty Tricks”, “The Politically Astute Project Manager”, “The Street Smart Project Manager: Use the Force-The Sensing”. The first main finding is that the results of this study are aligned with previous research around political astuteness in public service manager context, and existing frameworks could be applied in future research. The second is that results show similarities with the phenomenon street smart and further research could make contributions when developing future individual baselines in professional project management organisations. The third is the findings around intuition and sensing which is not explored and can have great value for future development of project management if investigated further. The fourth is that diverse, complex, and multicultural context is perceived as the main source for development of political astuteness for project managers. Keywords: Project Management, Political Astuteness, Political Skill, Street Smart