Projects and Project Managers

Numerous studies have looked at the relationship between project performance and project success; and many researchers have suggested that a general project management approach may hinder a project team's effort to deliver the optimal results expected. One perspective for explaining this suggestion asserts that because different types of projects involve different types of activities and concerns, most project managers are incapable of managing all types of projects. This article examines an interdisciplinary study of the impact that a project manager's personality has on their project's performance and success. In doing so, it discusses project management and personality psychology in relation to three of the field's research areas: project classification, manager personality, and measures of project success. With this, it explains a four-dimensional model--NCTP (novelty, complexity, technology, pace)--for classifying projects and for matching projects and project managers. It then outlines a questionnaire-based study--informed by the person-organization (P-O) fit theory--involving 89 Israeli project managers and using the NCTP model to explore the relationship between project type, project manager personality, and project success. It describes the study's three-part methodology and analyzes the study's results in relation to the authors' two research hypotheses. It also identifies the study's three shortcomings.