McCann, A B (2017) The relevance of project management best practice and its application in the UK construction industry. DProf thesis, University of Salford, UK.
Abstract
Professional project management associations have produced practice standards that may be used by practitioners, professional services firms and clients. This research was undertaken to explore the relevance of these professional project management practice standards (PPMPS) and their application in the UK construction industry. There is scant literature available on the PPMPS and therefore a deficiency of understanding about their compilation, scope and use in the UK construction industry. The industry faces many challenges including difficulties in retaining a skilled workforce and a mixed record of delivering public projects on time and within budget. The use of a cross-sectional single case study research strategy was adopted and primary data was generated from professional services firms and clients using semi-structured interviews. This data was used to triangulate with research undertaken by the Author in 2014. The previous research explored how individual practitioners in the UK construction industry availed themselves of the PPMPS. This research concludes that the PPMPS provides a de minimis benchmark for project management services and guidance to new entrants in to the profession. However, the limitations of the PPMPS include: they are not easy to access quickly, are not regarded as providing professional services firms with a commercial advantage, are not sufficiently promoted within the construction industry or to its clients, and that tacit knowledge and experience are more important than codified knowledge. This research includes recommendations to improve project management best practice. Using structuration theory, it is proposed that professional services firms' and clients' In-house standards have the potential to become the de-facto PPMPS. The concepts of the Semi-detached Professional and Bureaucratic project manager are introduced as interpretations of the findings generated from the practitioners, professional services firms and clients to provide a new understanding of professionalism in project management.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | best practice; case study; interview; professionalism; project management; UK; workforce |
| Index terms: | project management practice, interview, strategy, face, public project, professional service, practitioner, tacit knowledge, professionalism, case study, project manager, profession, best practice, construction industry, project management |
| Subjects: | infrastructure engineering, psychology, organization, practitioner, institututions, industry analysis, management, project management theory and practice, professional development, profession, data collection methods, business |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Project Management, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions |
| 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