The influence of the eye of competence on project success: exploring the indirect effect of people on both perspective and practice

Abstract

PurposeThere is a lack of investigation on three areas of competence in the Individual Competence Baseline 4 (ICB4) (IPMA). Furthermore, some studies pointed out the importance of soft skills over hard skills, but this relationship was not explored from the project manager’s competence perspective. This paper aims to analyze the influence of project manager competencies on project success.Design/methodology/approachThe survey involved 100 Brazilian project management professionals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using a partial least squares (PLS) approach was employed for data analysis.FindingsThe competence people was the protagonist of all project success. It affects practice with indirect effects on the impact on the customer. The paper highlights the project manager’s soft skills in reaching customer perception. Besides, the competence people also impacts perspective and, indirectly, preparation for the future.Research limitations/implicationsPersonal and interpersonal skills enable the project manager to interrelate with the project environment (organization strategy, governance, structures, processes, standards, power and interest, culture and values) and, therefore, to open a panorama for opportunities as a new market, product or technology. Thus, the new competence area perspective introduced in ICB4 brings an important insight for this research and future studies.Originality/valueBesides investigating the effect of behavioral competencies on project performance, this research addressed the importance of looking at the indirect effects when exploring models and testing hypotheses for a complete understanding of the relationship between variables.