| Abstract (english) | The construction industry is one of the key drivers in creating value in economies around the world (Liu et al., 2022) and is recognized as one of the largest and most complex sectors that require the most people to execute projects (Moon et al., 2018). Given its large carbon footprint and complex nature, the construction industry faces new realities and challenges from global market competition, technology, environmental regulations, an aging workforce, and changing regulatory requirements (Han, Pearce et al., 2012). Various researchers have studied the competencies of construction project managers, but a detailed overview of academic literature has not found a single study identifying any key set of competencies of construction project managers based on internationally recognized competence standards, as confirmed in the literature review in the next chapter. Increased interest in project management over the last two decades has led to greater adoption of international standards, including increased academic research and training in the field of project management (Pretorius et al., 2022). Considering that IPMA is an international standard that verifies all aspects of the project manager's competence (knowledge, skills and abilities) in the certification process, the decision was made to conduct this research according to the IPMA competence standard. The IPMA standard, as well as the certificate for project managers, recognized in more than 70 countries around the world and in the Republic of Croatia, has been, since 2015, an integral part of the Law called Zakon o poslovima i djelatnostima prostornog uređenja i gradnje [Act on Tasks and Activities
in Physical Planning and Construction] which regulates the field of construction project management (Ordinance ₋ Official Gazette NN 85/15, 2015; Act ₋ Official Gazette NN 110/19, 2 019; Act - Official Gazette NN 118/18, 2018; Act ₋ Official Gazette NN 78/15, 2015). Project-oriented organizations, such as construction companies, need trained, competent and
experienced project managers (Ghorbani, 2023). Project managers have a wide range of competencies to manage projects successfully. Although some competencies are often mentioned in the competency lists found in the literature, the details of each project require specific competencies from the project manager (Sołtysik et al., 2020). The improvement of any competence, whether behavioral, technical or contextual, directly affects the personal development of employees and has an impact on the individual and organizational level (Stojiljković, 2022). Research has shown that specific projects demand certain types of competencies (Rodrigues et al., 2023). Depending on the type, size, and complexity of the project, project managers need different levels of competencies for project management. A particular problem arises when construction project managers personally choose project management training and certification, whereas those who manage construction projects financed from funds regulated by public procurement procedures are required to have a certificate or proof of having acquired 30 ECTS credits in the field of project management. When referring to a certificate or the necessary 30 ECTS credits in project management, the training is equivalent in all areas of project management, given that certification is universal for all projects. The most recent research in project management (PMI – Pulse of the Profession,
2023) conducted in different industries indicates the different usage intensity of specific skills in particular industries. Considering that the successful completion of construction projects is challenging due to the lack of adequate competencies (Muneer et al., 2022), the question remains as to which competencies contribute to the successful delivery of a construction
project.
The following goals were defined as part of this research to answer the above question:
• Define the level of influence of individual competencies in construction project management on achieving specified project objectives and requirements within the agreed deadline and cost,
• Identify and define a unique set of key competencies that significantly affect the deadline, cost and objectives in construction project management.
Following the defined goals, the research hypothesis is defined as follows: Within the generic competence standard ICB 4.0, it is possible to identify a limited set of key competencies of construction project managers that significantly impact the delivery of project objectives within constraints of deadline and cost.
According to the main hypothesis, two supporting hypotheses are also defined:
• Different competencies of the project manager within the generic ICB 4.0 competency standard have a different level of influence on each of the defined performance variables for construction projects at handover (deadline, cost, objectives)
• Modeling all competencies based on a significant impact on dependent variables makes it possible to identify a key set of such competencies that have a significant impact and a high correlation with one or more performance variables for construction projects at handover (deadline, cost, objectives)
A competent project manager is crucial for project success (Hwang and Ng, 2013). The competencies of project managers are one of the factors that most influence employee performance in construction projects; however, many construction companies fail to pay enough attention to improving the competencies of project managers (El Sawalhi and Lafy, 2021).The PMCD framework (knowledge, performance, personal competence) (PMI-PMCDF,,2017) is developed by PMI and directly linked to PMBOK (PMI-PMBOK, 2017), while the KSA (knowledge, skills, ability) model is developed (Ahsan et al., 2013) and has been accepted by IPMA in its ICB (IPMA-ICB-4.0-HR, 2018). Each of the standards has its unique nomenclature for areas of competence. In its Talent Triangle, PMI categorizes competencies into strategic and business management, technical project management, and leadership competencies (PMI-PMCDF, 2017; PMI-PMBOK, 2017). In contrast, IPMA classifies competencies into perspective, practice and people (IPMA-ICB-4.0-HR, 2018). The third relevant standard is ISO 21500, which categorizes competencies into contextual, technical and behavioral (ISO 21500, 2012). The most comprehensive approach to assessing project manager competencies is IPMA's four-level certification model (Crawford, 2013). Legal regulations in the Republic of Croatia related to construction projects recognize certificates issued by IPMA
and PMI as authoritative qualifications for construction project managers (Official Gazette NN 85/15, 2015; Official Gazette NN 110/19, 2019; Official Gazette NN 118/18, 2018; Official Gazette NN 78/15, 2015). Based on the reviewed scientific literature, professional standards and international organizations engaged in scientific research and improvement in the field of project management at an international level, conducting certifications for project managers, and present and recognized in more than 70 countries around the world, the conclusion is that IPMA's KSA model ICB 4.0 (IPMA-ICB-4.0-HR, 2018) incorporating twenty-eight competence elements and categorized into three areas (perspective, people and practice), fully encompasses all identified and repeatedly emphasized essential competencies as referenced by
scientific authors of publications during research into the existing scientific literature, and was therefore chosen as a model of competences for conducting this research.
The criteria for project success have been constantly upgraded over time. Since the Iron Triangle model from the 1960s, models have been upgraded to the satisfaction of project stakeholders in the 1990s, shifting to focusing on the project benefits for the organization in the 2000s until today when there is a greater emphasis on the mentioned criteria of exerting
influence on social, geographical, ecological and political aspects of the environment. Changes in construction projects during execution are inevitable, which often impact cost, time and quality. However, the project manager is expected to manage the impacts of project changes effectively and complete the project within set project constraints (Schoonwinkel et al., 2016).
In most cases, the client expects the highest quality for a project. It means that the project team should provide excellent and outstanding project management outcomes, equivalent to meeting the client's expectations or even surpassing them (Grau, 2013). Project success is also measured upon completion in terms of the overall project goals as a delivered product, while project management success is measured at the end of the project, during handover, in terms of project
performance (cost. time, quality) (Lamprou and Vagiona, 2018). The focus of this research is construction projects, where construction project managers have primarily received a technical educated (usually a technical profession, such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering or architecture), and the research is focused on project management performance, i.e., the success of project execution in terms of delivering defined objectives within a predefined deadline and set cost. The success of the overall project for the client and organization will not be considered, given that the construction project manager’s engagement in the project ends upon the handover of the project. Project managers should focus on the task at hand to achieve the project goals and allow other roles to worry about strategic thinking, such as the sponsor (Müller and Turner, 2007a). After handing over the project to the client or user for ongoing management, project success is also measurable using success criteria, which is not within the scope of the construction project manager’s responsibilities. Therefore, the success of project management in this research is viewed as a successful project that is handed over to a client (Turner and Zolin, 2012) and is measured using tangible technical criteria and measurable variables, such as the deadline, cost, fulfillment of project goals and scope in line with given quality and technical specifications. Researching the literature on project success and project management success, as well as success criteria and critical factors in project success, and considering that project managers should focus on achieving set (well-defined) project goals (Müller and Turner, 2007a; Varajão et al., 2014), the research hypothesis requires measuring the success of the project delivery based on the criteria of the predefined project deadlines and costs as well as the fulfillment of set project objectives, all of which are dependent variables in the research (Creasy and Anantatmula, 2013).
The research methodology incorporates all necessary methods to achieve the defined research goals and test the hypothesis and requires carrying out the following activities:
1. Defining the scope of research
2. Reviewing and analyzing existing literature in the field of research
3. Defining the sample
4. Identifying and classifying the research variables
5. Selecting the research techniques and methods
6. Creating a questionnaire for a structured interview
7. Collecting data (conducting structured interviews with respondents)
8. Preparing the collected data for statistical processing
9. Processing and analyzing the data
10. Interpreting the research results and formulating the research conclusions
After conducting the desk research and collecting all data from the structured interviews, the PLS-SEM method is conducted using the software SmartPLS v.4 (Ringle et al., 2022) for each particular competence (as independent variables) in relation to the deadline-cost-objectives (as dependent variables), the level of influence was obtained, from which it follows that the first research objective: Define the level of influence of individual competence in the construction project management to achieve the set objectives and requirements of the project within the limits of the agreed deadline and cost is fulfilled, and first supporting hypothesis: Different competencies of the project manager within the generic competence standard ICB 4.0 have a different intensity of influence on each of the defined variables of the success of the construction
project at handover (deadline, cost, objectives) is CONFIRMED. Based on the results of researching the common model, there is a significant connection between competencies “4.4.8. Resourcefulness” and “4.5.2. Requirements, objectives and
benefits” and the dependent variable DEADLINE, where the path coefficient is greater than 0/5. In addition, there is also a significant connection between competencies “4.3.3". Compliance, standards and regulations”, “4.4.7. Conflict and crisis”, “4.4.9. Negotiation”, 4.5.3. Scope”, “4.5.10. Plan and control”, “4.5.12. Stakeholders” and the dependent variable COST, where the path coefficient is greater than 0.5. A significant connection also exists between competencies “4.5.2. Requirements, objectives and benefits”, “4.5.13. Change and transformation” and the dependent variable OBJECTIVES, where the path coefficient is greater than 0.5 (Mohamed et al., 2018). Therefore, these competencies are considered significant competencies or a unique set of key competencies significantly impacting the delivery of project objectives within deadline and cost constraints. Based on the above, the second research objective: Identify and define a unique set of key competencies that significantly influence the deadline, cost and objectives in the construction project management, is fulfilled, and the second supporting hypothesis: By joint modeling of all competencies with a significant individual impact on dependent variables, it is possible to identify a key set of those competencies that have a significant impact, respectively, a strong connection with one or more variables of the success of the construction project at handover (deadline, cost, objectives)“ is CONFIRMED.
Based on the research results, it follows that the limited set of key competencies consists of the following competencies: “4.3.3. Compliance, standards and regulations”, “4.4.7. Conflict and crisis”, “4.4.8. Resourcefulness”, “4.4.9. Negotiation”, “4.5.2. Requirements, objectives and benefits”, “4.5.3. Scope”, “4.5.10. Plan and control”, “4.5.12. Stakeholders”, “4.5.13. Change and transformation”. Consequently, the main research hypothesis: Within the generic competence standard ICB 4.0, it is possible to identify a limited set of key competencies of construction project managers that significantly impact the delivery of project objectives within constraints of the deadline and cost is CONFIRMED.
Based on the results of this research, construction project managers will be able to focus on and develop exactly those competencies that significantly impact the delivery of project objectives within defined deadlines and cost limits that contribute to the success of construction projects. Organizations employing project managers will be able to develop the competencies of existing construction project managers systematically, and when hiring new project managers, look for
those who have developed the identified competencies from the limited key set of competencies of this research. All organizations and institutions that are obliged to adhere to the public procurement system and manage construction projects have a legal obligation to appoint a construction project manager, and are able to more precisely define the required competencies of project managers when announcing a tender for project management services, with the aim
of obtaining the best possible candidate to execute the project.
The recommendation for future research is to conduct research in other geographical areas or globally on a much larger sample. The following recommendation refers to the size and complexity of projects because ICB 4.0 notes different certification levels related to the complexity of projects that individuals manage. Therefore, the recommendation is to
investigate whether a different set of key competencies for construction project managers contributes to the success of projects of varying levels of complexity. This research covers all types of construction projects, hence the clear recommendation to do separate research for each subgroup of construction projects in order to investigate whether there is a difference between certain competencies of a construction project manager and the associated impact on project performance, given that the subgroups differ technologically. Respondents from the private and public sectors participated in the research, highlighting differences in the way project managers communicate with their superiors and subordinates during the execution of projects, and consequently, primarily behavioral and contextual competencies (from the field of Perspective and Practice according to ICB 4.0), indicating that it would be desirable to conduct separate research in the private and public sectors in order to determine whether there are differences in applying certain competencies and their impact on project performance. |
