Desired Competences for Project Managers

Abstract: Project Management is multidisciplinary in nature; it involves a number of activities and requires the project manager to possess a wide variety of competences. This thesis aims to investigate which competences organizations currently require from project managers. In particular the focus of this research is to examine and contrast the “soft” (interpersonal) and “hard” (technical) competences required by the job market and to find out if organizations recognize the importance of both of them or if they pay special attention to one of them. A total of 50 online job advertisements from different industries and countries were analyzed using content analysis in order to determine what competences are valued by employers. Furthermore, 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted with project management academics and practitioners in order to provide a more in depth study and to allow triangulation between the findings. The results indicate that some competences are more valued than others. Communication, project integration management and scope management are the top three competences required by employers. The results also suggest that employers, academics and practitioners are aware of the need to balance hard and soft competences.