Technical and interpersonal skills and characteristics of successful construction project managers

Australia's property industry stands as the nation's largest economic sector, contributing A$234.7 billion annually through gross domestic product (GDP). Of this, A$122 billion is linked to residential property construction, supporting nearly 735,000 jobs. Within this vital industry, construction project managers play a crucial role in ensuring successful project outcomes. Despite extensive literature on project success, the precise definition of success and the development of performance measures for project managers remain ambiguous, particularly in the construction sector. Unlike other industries that increasingly rely on automation, construction projects still heavily depend on human input. This reality underscores the need for construction project managers to expand beyond technical skills to include soft skills such as team building, leadership, communication, and human resource management. Although some research has highlighted the importance of leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal competencies for project success, there is a notable gap in the exploration of these elements, especially in the context of land subdivisions and low-rise residential dwelling construction in Australia. This study aims to investigate the shared management attributes and leadership styles of successful project managers in residential land development and high-volume, low-rise dwelling construction. Utilizing a qualitative research approach, the study begins with autoethnographic reflections of the researcher's industry experience. Additionally, document analysis was conducted on 200 job advertisements for project managers in the specified fields and educational offerings from 14 sources, including industry peak bodies and tertiary institutions. This analysis sought to align educational content with the attributes and qualities valued in the recruitment phase and real-life perceptions of factors contributing to project success. Individual interviews with 24 purposively sampled respondents, comprising residential construction project managers, specialist recruitment professionals, and educators, provided further insights. The interview questions, informed by the autoethnographic content, aimed to capture perceptions of project success and the role of project managers. Triangulating data from these three cohorts allowed for a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena. The research identified that project success criteria (PSC) extend beyond the traditional metrics of time, budget, and quality, incorporating broader considerations. It also highlighted that while project managers are a critical success factor (CSF), essential attributes determining their effectiveness are often overlooked in the literature. Three leadership styles, collaborative, authoritative, and adaptive, emerged from the interviews. Collaborative and authoritative styles align with democratic and autocratic categories from Lewin et al.'s seminal work, while adaptive leadership mirrors Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory. The study's findings have practical implications, emphasizing the need for enhanced networking between project managers, recruiters, and educators to improve educational offerings and recruitment strategies. Property development companies in Australia are encouraged to prioritise interpersonal skills, organisational abilities, and management competencies over traditional technical knowledge and formal qualifications. Additionally, areas such as quality, community engagement, safety, sustainability, and stakeholder management require more attention from project managers. Future research opportunities include comparing PSC and CSFs across different construction sectors, addressing gender dynamics in the industry, conducting longitudinal studies following project managers throughout the project life cycle, and examining stakeholder influences on project managers.