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Current literature acknowledges the growth of careers in project management. The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the characteristics of those who choose and continue in project-based careers.

Using social cognitive career theory as the lens to explore project management career journeys, 74 project practitioners were interviewed from across three broad industry sectors. A qualitative research approach was utilized and Atlas.ti was used to analyze and categorize the interview data collected.

Those who choose to continue in project-based roles demonstrate high levels of self-efficacy and coping efficacy and see uncertainty as opportunity. They value challenge, flexibility and variety and take responsibility for their own career progression. Desire for employment security may vary according to personal circumstance. These findings are of value to employers in guiding selection and retention of people for project roles.

This is a qualitative and exploratory study covering only three industry sectors and results are not generalizable. SCCT was found useful as a lens for understanding the nature of project-based careers.

Findings of this research provide valuable guidance for employers and HR practitioners in project-based organizations. For practitioners the study provides a useful framework for reflecting upon their own careers in projects.

The nature of careers is changing. Project-based careers are indicative of this change. This study therefore provides insight into an evolving phenomenon.

This study expands our understanding of careers in projects, going beyond technical skill development to gain a deeper understanding of personal attributes that contribute to selection into and retention in project-based careers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore recent literature on the impact of changes in the workplace environment and projected trends through to the year 2030. This allows the authors to identify and discuss what key trends are changing the nature of project organising work. The authors aim to identify what knowledge and which skills, attributes and experiences will be most likely valued and needed in 2030.

This paper is essentially a reflective review and is explorative in nature. The authors focus on several recent reports published in the UK and Australia that discuss the way that the future workforce will adapt and prepare for radical changes in the workplace environment. The authors focus on project organising work and the changing workplace knowledge, skills, attributes and experience (KSAE) needs of those working in project teams in 2030 and beyond. The authors draw upon existing KSAE literature including findings from a study undertaken into the KSAEs of project alliance managers working in a highly collaborative form of project delivery.

The analysis suggests that there is good and bad news about project workers prospects in 2030. The good news is that for those working in non-routine roles their work will be more interesting and rewarding than is the case for today. The bad news is that for workers in routine work roles, they will be replaced by advanced digital technology.

Few, if any, papers published in the project organising literature speculate about what this discipline may look like or what KSAEs will be valued and needed.

This paper opens up a debate about how project management/project organising work will be undertaken in future and what skills and expertise will be required. It also prompts project managers to think about how they will craft their careers in 2030 in response to expected work environment demands. This will have professional and learning implications.

The issue of the future workplace environment is highly relevant to the social context.

This paper is about a projected future some 12 years onward from today. It bridges a gap in any future debate about how project organising jobs may change and how they will be delivered in the 2030s.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of the continuing influence on project management (PM) research directions of rethinking project management over the last ten years.

The authors chose a qualitative research approach that involved reading all papers published in the International Journal of Managing Project in Business since its commencement in 2008. Content analysis was performed on these papers to allow axial coding of key article content influence themes.

The research identified the strength, over time, of the three research interest clusters on the PM research agenda and resultant changes in the PM paradigm. The five directions put forward by the rethinking PM agenda and other researchers ten years ago have continued to influence the PM research agenda.

Findings provide a better understanding the changes in PM research directions since rethinking PM, the increased breadth and sophistication of PM research in general, and future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify issues in the long-term development of project workers, their career paths, their contribution to organizational success and their need for equity of opportunity. The long-term development of project workers, their career paths and their contribution to organizational success is explored.

A qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews was employed to gain an understanding of social and human issues related to careers in project management (PM). By researching the lived experiences and feelings of those pursuing a career in PM the aim was to gain insight into the career journeys and experiences of practicing project managers.

Those who choose to pursue a career in PM have the personal characteristics and sufficiently high levels of self-efficacy to deal effectively with the uncertainty inherent in the nature of projects and of project-based employment.

Participants were drawn from current project practitioners. As a result, the views of those who have worked on projects and chosen not to continue their career in the area have not been gathered.

Predictions are that there will be a continuing demand for project managers with the capabilities required to deliver successful projects. The challenge for organizations is to create an environment that will encourage greater numbers of people to embrace the uncertainty of project. The findings reported provide insight into how organizations might attract, develop and retain the project expertise they require for success.

This research provides further understanding into the lived experience of project managers, with a focus on those who have unexpectedly found themselves pursuing a career in PM.

Competitive advantage in the service industry is achieved through superior customer service. This paper looks at the ways in which IT is being used to support superior quality customer service initiatives in the highly competitive Australian banking industry. The extent to which the need to improve service quality influences IT planning and purchases, and shifts in the level of influence over recent years, are detailed. The link between IT‐supported quality customer service improvements and organisational performance is then discussed.

The Australian banking industry has undergone fast and dramatic change in response to deregulation and globalisation of financial markets. The release of the Wallis Report on the Australian financial industry in March 1997 signalled that this rate of change can be expected to continue into the twenty‐first century. This study was carried out on one proje ct, part of an organisation‐wide reengineering programme in a major Australian bank and examined the link between corporate strategy and implementation of an IT‐supported change project. Results highlight the need for careful co‐ordination of organisational, technology and departmental strategies when carrying out major change programmes, and the importance of user training for effective use of the system.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the circumstances in which a highly collaborative integrated project delivery form such an alliance is the most appropriate choice of delivering infrastructure projects.

The paper draws upon two previously published studies on alliancing to enable gathering insights from a quantitative study with some qualitative data that indicates project alliance delivery performance is high and suggests why it may be adopted as a project delivery form. A second qualitative study recently completed and published on integrated collaborative forms of project delivery such as alliances is re-analysed to better understand how and why this form may be successful. Together these two studies allowed a focus on the motivation to form an alliance and specific conditions relating to the alliance party’s level of ability and willingness to deeply collaborate.

The motivation to deeply collaborate may be triggered by specific internal and external trigger mechanisms. These are identified in the paper together with discussion about the requirement of parties to have sufficient knowledge, skills, attributes and experience to collaborate at a deeply engaged level.

The data used in the studies were from large scale infrastructure construction projects. The examples are mainly drawn from countries where collaboration is common and culturally acceptable; results may not apply to cultures, country or workplace, where high levels of competition are seen to be the optimal strategy for project delivery success. Also, the data were drawn from construction project management (PM). Other project-based areas such as professional services for example may present a different context and hence a different rationale.

The study provides deep insights about the nature of collaboration. It may have wider applicability.

Project organising is a social activity with social implications for how they are delivered that affect internal as well as external stakeholders. Being mindful about the motivation to choose a particular delivery form is important.

This is a new area of research in PM and the world faces a massive demand for large scale complex projects. This paper may provide a rational to drive policy in project delivery choices.

The purpose of this paper is to present results and analysis from a case study on ethical dilemmas faced by client-side project management employees of a large Australian University.

A single case study approach was adopted using the property services division's experience of potential ethical dilemmas that staff were exposed to as a focus for the unit of analysis. Data were triangulated by interviewing the Deputy Director of the division, a programme manager, a project manager and a client (stakeholder) with experience of dealing with the division. Each person was interviewed and the interview transcribed and analysed using grounded theory to make sense of the data.

Four potential ethical dilemmas were identified: fraud/bribery/corruption; favouritism and special treatment; occupational health and safety and duty of care; and professionalism and respect for others. Leadership, governance structure and (organisational and national) culture supported initiative and independent thinking through cause-and-effect loops and consequences and this meditated and influenced how these dilemmas were dealt with.

This was just one case study in one cultural and governance setting. Greater insights and confidence in conclusions could be gained with replication of this kind of study. This study was part of a broader study of ethics in project management (PM) that consisted of eight other cases studies by others in the wider research team, also a quantitative study has been undertaken with results to be presented in other papers/reports. The main implication is that governance and workplace culture are two key influences that moderate and mediate an individuals inherent response to an ethical dilemma.

Clients (project owners or POs) and their representatives (PORs) hold a pivotal role in ensuring that PM work takes place within an environment characterised by high ethical standards yet the authors know that all PM parties, including client-side PORs, are faced with ethical dilemmas. What do the authors mean by an “ethical dilemma” and how may POs ensure that their PORs behave ethically? This paper provides practical guidance and demonstrates how ethical dilemmas can be analysed and appropriate action taken.

Ethics in PM has profound implications for value generation through projects. Project managers need sound guidance and processes that align with society's norms and standards to be able to deliver project value so that commercial or sectarian interests do not dominate project delivery at the expense of society in general.

This paper provides a rare example of a case study of project teams facing ethical dilemmas. The PM literature has few cases such as this to draw upon to inform PM theory and practice.