The Importance of Soft Skills and it Project Managers’ Personality Type

Cíntia Araújo; Cristiane Drebes Pedron

doi:10.26668/businessreview/2016.v1i1.8

The Importance of Soft Skills and it Project Managers’ Personality Type

Cíntia Araújo, Cristiane Drebes Pedron

Abstract

Information technology (IT) is a strategic element in business as it is fundamental to create value to organizations. To be efficient, project managers need to develop other competencies besides their technical skills (“hard skills”). This paper aims to show the importance of soft skills in the development of IT project managers’ competencies by answering the following questions (1) “which is the impact of “soft skills” on IT projects management?” and (2) “the personality type of the project manager can influence the development of his/her soft skills?”. To answer these questions, we conducted an exploratory and qualitative research. To collect data, we interviewed IT project managers and applied the MBTI test to identify their personality type. As we crossed the results of MBTI tests and content of the interviews, we noticed that some professionals have a personality type that might hinder them from developing some soft skills. Another important finding is that leadership and communication are the most important soft skills in project management according to IT project managers. This research contributes to the academia as it indicates opportunities for further studies on the relationship of personality type and competence development. A managerial implication of research results is that managers and leaders can use personality tests such as MBTI to prevent relationship conflicts in teams as well as to design training programs that best suit their subordinates’ personality traits.

Keywords

MBTI; soft skills; project manager competencies; information technology; competence development

Full Text:

PDF (Português (Brasil))

References

Assis, C. B. (2011). Governança e gestão da tecnologia da informação: diferenças na aplicação em empresas brasileiras - dissertação de mestrado. Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (Poli/USP).

Belzer, K. (2001). Project management: still more art than science. In PM Forum Featured Papers.

Cohen, Y., Ornoy, H., & Keren, B. (2013). MBTI Personality Types of Project Managers and Their Success: A Field Survey. Project Management Journal, (June). doi:10.1002/pmj

Dalfovo, M. S., Lana, R. A., & Silveira, A. (2008). Métodos quantitativos e qualitativos: um resgate teórico. Revista Interdisciplinar Científica Aplicada, 2(n. 4), 1–13.

Dolfi, J., & Andrews, E. J. (2007). The subliminal characteristics of project managers: An exploratory study of optimism overcoming challenge in the project management work environment. International Journal of Project Management, 25(7), 674–682. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.02.002

Dulewicz, V., & Higgs, M. (2005). Assessing leadership styles and organisational context. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(2), 105–123. doi:10.1108/02683940510579759

Fleury, M. T. L., & Fleury, A. (2001). Construindo o Conceito de Competência. RAC, (Edição Especial), 183–196.

Gil, C. A. (2002). Como Elaborar Projetos de Pesquisa (4a. edição.). Editora Atlas.

Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Schedulling and Controlling (10th editi.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Manfredi, S. M. (1998). Trabalho, qualificação e competência profissional - das dimensões conceituais e políticas. Educação & Sociedade, 19(64). doi:10.1590/S0101-73301998000300002

Martins, G. de A., & Theóphilo, C. R. (2009). Metodologia da investigação científica para ciências sociais aplicadas - 2a. edição (2nd ed.). São Paulo, SP, Brazil: Editora Atlas S.A.

Müller, R. (2003). Determinants for external communications of IT project managers. International Journal of Project Management, 21(5), 345–354. doi:10.1016/S0263-7863(02)00053-4

Müller, R., & Turner, J. R. (2007). Matching the project manager’s leadership style to project type. International Journal of Project Management, 25(1), 21–32. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.04.003

Pant, I., & Baroudi, B. (2008). Project management education: The human skills imperative. International Journal of Project Management, 26(2), 124–128. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.05.010

PMI. (2007). Project Manager Competency Development ( PMCD ) Framework (2nd ed.). Pennsylvania, USA: Project Management Institute, Inc.

PMI. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK® Guide ) - Portuguese (5th ed.). Pennsylvania, USA: Project Management Institute, Inc.

Projeto Inspiira. (2013). [software]. Walnut, CA, USA: Projeto Inspiira.

Rabechini Jr., R. (2001). A importância das habilidades do gerente

de projetos. Revista de Administração da Universidade de São Paulo, 36(1).

Rabechini Jr., R., & Carvalho, M. M. De. (2003). Perfil das competências em equipes de projetos. RAE-eletrônica, 2, 1–17. Retrieved from http://www.rae.com.br/eletronica/index.cfm?FuseAction=Artigo&ID=1333&Secao=OPERA/LOGI&Volume=2&Numero=

Rajapogal, N. (2008). Myers-Briggs type indicator(MBTI): Examining Behavioural aspects of executives in IT. Foundation for Organisational Research & Education, 26(1).

Rao, M. S. (2012). Myths and truths about soft skills. T+D, 66(5), 48.

Ribeiro Filho, J. F., Lopes, J. E. de G., Pederneiras, M. M. M., Almeira, L. B. de, & Ribeiro, M. T. J. de B. (2010). Características da personalidade de estudantes de ciências contábeis: Análise do conhecimento baseado no Modelo Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Contabilidade, Gestão e Governança, 13(2).

Shenhar, A. J., & Wideman, R. M. (2002). Optimizing sucess by matching management style to project type. PMForum Site.

Smith, L. W. (2001). The effects of project manager personality profiles on projects. Nashiville, Tenessee, USA.

Stevenson, D. H., & Starkweather, J. A. (2010). PM critical competency index: IT execs prefer soft skills. International Journal of Project Management, 28(7), 663–671. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.11.008

Sumner, M., Bock, D., & Giamartino, G. (2006). Exploring the linkage between the characteristics of IT project leaders and project sucess. Information Systems Management, 23(4), 43.

Thamhain, H. J. (2004). Team leadership effectiveness in technology-based project environments. Project Management Journal, (December), 35–47.

Turner, J. R., & Müller, R. (2005). The project manager’s leadership style as a success factor on projects: a literature review. Project management journal, 36(2), 49–61.

Vargas, R. V. (2005). Avoiding mistakes during the team acquisition: find the right people to the right function using MBTI. In PMI Global Congress Proceedings (pp. 1–9). Edinburgh, Scotland.

Wateridge, J. (1997). Training for IS/IT project managers: a way forward. International Journal of Project Management, 15(5), 283–288.

Wateridge, J. (1998). How can IS/IT projects be measured for success? International Journal of Project Management, 16(1), 59–63. doi:10.1016/S0263-7863(97)00022-7

Wideman, R. M. (1998). Dominant Personality Traits Suited to Running Projects Successfully (And What Type are You?). AEW Services.

Wideman, R. M. (2008). Project teamwork, personality profiles and the population at large: do we have enough of the right kind of people? Long Beach, California: Project Management Institute, Inc.

Zemke, R. (1992). Second thoughts about the MBTI. Training, 29(4), 43.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26668/businessreview/2016.v1i1.8

Article Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

_{Metrics powered by PLOS ALM}

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

Desenvolvido por:

Username
Password
Remember me