Sustainability competencies of project managers in the management of construction industry projects

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Project Management Group- Department of Architecture - University of Tehran

10.22080/shrm.2024.4666

Abstract

The increasing importance of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in human societies has led to the emergence of new fields in various sciences, including project-oriented management. One of the most important areas is the development of individual competence of managers as the main role holders in paying attention to sustainability. Therefore, the main goal in this research is to develop knowledge of effective competencies in sustainable project management.
So far, research has been done on sustainability competencies, but less attention has been paid to sustainable project management competencies in the construction industry. The purpose of this study is to identify the sustainability competencies needed by project managers in the construction industry.
The current study has a developmental orientation and an exploratory objective. Data was collected through 11 semi-structured interviews with the qualitative method of multiple case study and thematic analysis.
This analysis resulted in a list of 12 sustainability competencies of project managers, which are categorized into three categories: knowledge, skill and attitude. Having stable knowledge and being up-to-date in this field are two competencies with a major scientific approach. In the skill category, creative use of available resources, having interpersonal skills and the ability to implement issues related to sustainability are three key skills. But in the third category, which has the largest contribution, value-oriented thinking, ethical orientation, forward-looking, continuous learning, education-oriented thinking and sustainability-based behavior are among the most important competencies for sustainable project management.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Sustainable Human Resource Management
Volume 6, Issue 10
April 2024
Pages 348-325

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