Esa, M (2015) The influence of project manager’s cognitive styles on project success in the Malaysian construction industry. PhD thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Abstract
Considerable attention has been devoted to project success which is at the heart of project management. This interest led to the development of a wide diversity of project success topic. There are many factors that contribute to a successful implementation of a project, hence it's not surprising that there have been many research conducted in this field. Over the years scholars have investigated and analysed what they deem as factors that directly impacts the degree of success of a project. It has been revealed that the effective performance of a project manager is the most critical factor affecting project success. It is also reported that soft skills or human-related factors contribute more to project success than technical skills but these human-related factors received insufficient attention especially with regard to the project manager’s abilities and performance. As such, there is an imperative need to investigate the effect of humanrelated factors on the project success by project managers that seems to have gained little attention in Malaysian construction industry. Many studies have investigated the project manager’s leadership style, social skills and the relative importance of critical factors across the project life cycle and their effect on successful project outcomes. However, a very little study has been conducted on the project manager’s cognitive styles and their effect on project success in construction industry. The main aim of this research is to explore how the cognitive styles and its attributes influence the achievement of project success by construction project managers. This study adopted single method research design by employing quantitative method of data collection in Malaysian construction industry. This research found out that project managers tend to stimulate their cognitive competence by cooperating Planning Style, Knowing Style and Creating Styles attributes which formed the cognitive styles construct in achieving project success from the aspect of project usability, value of project outcomes to users and the project delivery. This study has provided information and empirical findings on how the cognitive styles constructs have influences on the achievement of project success by Malaysian construction project managers. This research indicated that by paying greater attention to this human-related factor relationship, project managers will be able to demonstrate a significant role in project completion successfully by applying the proposed CoSProS (Cognitive Styles and Project Success) Framework. Finally, the research argues to include cognitive styles as topics for discussion in every project manager’s educational training programme so this subject be better understood and more effectively managed. This study also has highlighted possible ways to foster the cognitive style among project managers through training programmes and ultimately pull this so called human-related issues ‘out of the closet’.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Alias, A |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | competence; skills; construction project; leadership; life cycle; project delivery; project success; training; project manager |
| Index terms: | cognitive style, project management, project delivery, implementation, heart, construction industry, project success, project manager, critical factor, project outcome, research design, life cycle, quantitative method, construction project, competence, technical skill, relative importance, manager, programme, leadership style, usability |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, project controls, project management theory and practice, personnel development, professional development, data analysis and analytics, project delivery, value management, risk assessment, profession, user-centered design, research design and methodology, leadership, cognitive psychology, production management, medical science and clinical practice, contractual arrangements, practitioner, project completion |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Time Control, Organizational Design, Design Practice, Human Resources, Risk Management, Procurement, Health and Safety, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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