Project managers’ roles

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of the research was to investigate which management roles were adopted in this merger process and to look at project management skills and competencies and how they may influence the management roles in practice. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative case study design relating to the merger of two municipalities in Norway, one of which was much larger than the other. Data was gathered from semi-structured interviews in addition to reading relevant documentation. Findings In diminishing order of importance the management roles were entrepreneur, leader, spokesman, monitor, liaison, resource allocator. Research limitations/implications While the research was carried out with the intention of making it replicable, the authors acknowledge that different researchers, with different participants on different occasions may show differences in the results. Practical implications This study suggests that particular attention and practical decisions are needed to support public sector project managers in gaining the technical skills of project work. Another practical implication of this study is the importance of interpersonal skills, leadership experience and informal authority in public sector change management projects. Originality/value This paper has originality in that there is little previous data on how public project managers exercise their management roles in parallel in an organizational change project. It has value in that previous research indicates a disappointing outcome for many change projects but not how better outcomes may best be sought by public project change managers.