Matching Construction Project Manager Competences With Organizational Enablers

In an increasingly project-based construction industry,firms' competitive advantage depends on their capability to attract competent project managers and support them with enabling organization environment.The adequate fit between project managers and organization environment is the prerequisite for fully utilizing project manager competence,while misfit leads to the wastes of both human resources and organization resources.National strategies,including “filling the gap in infrastructure construction industry” and “the Belt and Road Initiative”,are bringing great opportunities to Chinese construction firms and translates to the rapidly growing demand for construction project managers.This poses a critical challenge on construction firms to acquire project management talent according to organization environment.However,such practices have not yet been guided by a comprehensive research on how project manager competence should be properly matched with organization environment.In view of the research gap herein,this study investigates the match between project manager competences and the organizational enablers that facilitate organizational project management practices.First,I conducted a systematic review of the abundant literature on project manager competence using both attribute-based and performance-based approaches.Based on the analysis of the competence requirements described in job advertisements,I developed the measurement model of project manager competence from a demand-side perspective.The model was tested for reliability and validity with the 163 data collected through questionnaire surveys.Second,building on the theoretical insights from organization capability and project management maturity,I utilized the resource-based view to identify organizational enablers in project-based construction firms.A measurement model of organizational enablers at project,program and portfolio levels was developed and then tested with 203 questionnaire survey data.Combining the measurement models of project manager competence and organizational enablers,I explored the effect of their fit on project performance with a moderation effect model.The structural equation model results validate the moderation effect at construct-level.The regression analyses on the interactions at indicator-level further reveal 15 specific matching patterns between project manager competence indicators and organizational enabler dimensions.In order to put the revealed matching patterns to application in project manager recruitment,I developed a text mining algorithm(named Paired-Topic Model)that mines the key dimensions of competence requirements,firm descriptions and their match in project manager job advertisements.The effectiveness of the algorithm was tested with field experiments.Besides,the matching patterns were also applied in two case studies on real-world construction firms to derive practical suggestions on improving the fit between project manager competence and organizational enablers.The findings of this study suggest that:1.Project manager competence requirements in job advertisements can be measured by 4 dimensions and 14 indicators from a demand-side perspective;2.Organizational enablers at project,program and portfolio levels are measured by 10 dimensions and 44 indicators,and low-level enablers act as the foundation of high-level enablers;3.There are 15 positive interaction effects between project manager competence and organizational enablers,corresponding to their matching patterns;4.The matching patterns mined by Paired-Topic Model from job advertisements are consistent with those revealed by the statistical analyses on survey data, indicating their reliability and robustness;5.The field experiment results suggest that the proposed Paired-Topic Model can significantly improve the effectiveness of matching project manager resume with job advertisements in real-world applications;6.The case studies on the two construction firms suggest the importance of matching project manager competence with organizational enablers.Taken together,this study enhances the theoretical understanding on the organizational enablers of construction firms,reveals the competence matching patterns,and operationalizes them into a text mining algorithm.The findings contribute to matching the right project management talent with organization environment to enhance organizational project management capability with a multi-level approach,and thereby,improve project performance.