Turner, T J A (2010) The practice of financial project management in the consulting engineering industry. PhD thesis, University of Phoenix, USA.
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand more clearly the challenges that practicing project managers in the consulting engineering industry face in trying to avoid project overruns. Practicing project managers in the Commonwealth of Virginia who had experienced projects with overruns participated in semi-structured interviews and data from those interviews was used to identify emergent themes and patterns. Eight thematic categories emerged from the data: (a) motivation, (b) challenges of project managers, (c) perceived effect of challenges to work performance, (d) experience with project overruns, (e) experience with no project overruns, (f) causes of project overruns, (g) professional development opportunities, and (h) suggestions to improve work performance of project managers. The research revealed specific elements in the practice of financial project management that were contributory factors in project overruns. The recommendation is that consulting engineering organizations and academia may benefit from the results of this study and have a consideration for training and education that prepares project managers in advance for the challenges they face. This may lead to enhancements in strategy planning to address those challenges and potential benefits of improvements in the practice of financial project management that improve the financial and competitive position of the organization.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Weinbaum, E |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | education; motivation; training; professional; phenomenological study; project manager; interview |
| Index terms: | interview, motivation, overrun, strategy, face, project manager, professional development, phenomenological study, contributory factor, academia, project management, work performance |
| Subjects: | methods and analysis, project management theory and practice, professional development, management, project controls, educational institutions, risk assessment, profession, data collection methods, psychology, operations management |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Human Resources, Time Control, Organizational Design, Project Management, Risk Management, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here