Necessity of soft skills for project managers and the contribution to project success

Project managers use hard and soft skills to manage their teams, and their proficiency or inaptitude in these skills can eventually lead to a project's success or failure. This dissertation argues that soft skills are critical for project managers who wish to achieve a successful project completion. The key focus of this research is to explore the need for soft skills and identify whether they are essential for project managers, and the degree of influence these skills may have on a project's team members and overall project success. This thesis is presented in publication/manuscript format. A qualitative–interpretative approach has been used, where a combination of analytical methods, such as thematic analysis and narratives, were adopted as a form of evidence supporting this research. The research process and detailed findings have been divided into four papers, meeting the University's publication/manuscript submission requirements. Firstly, in paper one a Comprehensive Literature Review (meta-framework) has been conducted as evidence to support the argument that project managers could increase the chances of projects being successful by applying their soft skills to manage their project team and overall performance. The second paper defines the skills required to become a project leader and, most importantly, differentiates the role of a project manager from that of a project leader—labels that are often used interchangeably or considered the same in practice. The evidence for the second paper is derived from interviews and a thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that a project manager could evolve into a project leader by building the soft skills related to Emotional Quotient (EQ). The third paper, which also uses thematic analysis and an inductive approach for data collection, identifies the impact of the project manager's soft skills on the project team's performance and how it may influence the chances of the project being successful. The findings of this paper indicate that a project manager's soft skills can positively impact a project team's performance and thereby increase the chances of a project's success. This paper also identifies the key soft skills required by a project manager to effectively manage their team. Lastly, the fourth paper, which is a future research exploration using Gioia methodology, focuses on exploring the value of intangible (soft skills) investments to aid successful digital transformation in organisations. The findings of this paper present the essential soft skills required by a project manager dealing with digital transformation projects and identifies the factors which motivate project managers to implement their soft skills. The results of this research provide a significant contribution to the field of project management, specifically for project managers, academia, and recruiters. For project managers, the findings could aid with identifying key soft skills which they could develop over time to better manage their teams and their performance. It would also assist project managers to manage their project teams efficiently and effectively, thereby increasing the chances of project success. Concerning academia, the research could help program leaders to identify and develop training programs and activities that can be incorporated into the current curriculum which would help students to identify their soft skills and develop them for use in a corporate environment. Recruiters could use this research to identify more suitable candidates for project management and project leader positions, based on the identified skill sets for both.