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Writers over the years have sought to define the nature and roles of a project manager. The attempts at these definitions have been based on rather historic writings of what a manager should do. This paper seeks to provide an up‐to‐date understanding of the current roles of a construction project manager.

A literature review is used to develop a time role analysis matrix which is completed by 24 project management staff working for a multi‐national contractor located in west‐central Scotland.

What becomes clear from this research is that the definition of the actual roles is vague and poorly defined and the role basket is loose with each project shaping the final range. The research shows that the number of roles undertaken by a project manager changes with age and also the nature of the roles undertaken moves with the maturity of the project manager.

The historic view of what roles project managers undertake needs to be moulded in light of the findings from this research. Specifically, the rather low response to the basket of commercial roles suggests that these functional areas are being addressed elsewhere in the project team.

The paper provides a snapshot of practising project managers from one geographic location and wider research needs to be undertaken to ascertain the broader view.

Project management has become a common organisational approach to manage complex projects. Despite its popularity, few studies have used a human resource perspective to understand the behavioural dimensions of the project manager. This study reports an empirical investigation on some of the causes and consequences of role stress among project managers. The sample consisted of 101 project managers in both projectised and matrix organisations. The study investigates the relationships between role stress and communication aspects such as boundary spanning, perceived effectiveness, satisfaction and job tension. It also examines the effect of role autonomy, need for achievement, age and experience on effectiveness, satisfaction and performance. Implications of the study, in terms of project management effectiveness are discussed. The study concludes with a summary of critical behavioural issues which impinge on project management effectiveness.

Change management (CM) and project management (PM) literatures examine the key roles (change agent, project manager, project or change sponsor) played during projects or changes only from their respective points of view. They do so even in cases where projects and changes occur at the same time – or are so-called change projects. In such cases, effective management should utilize both scientific fields’ bodies of knowledge (BoK). The purpose of this paper is to unfold how and in which domain(s) typical roles of the two disciplines correspond to each other.

This paper is a systematic, bi-disciplinary meta-review that simultaneously studies relevant literature on roles performed during projects and changes. The common domain of CM and PM was identified; the systematic review and comparison of role definitions followed.

This paper examines and illustrates the correspondence of 7 CM and 14 PM roles; e.g., “sponsor” refers to the same role and “change agent” and “project manager” are corresponding ones, referring to the same role up to a certain degree.

This paper does not provide an exhaustive overview of various instances of different role (and stakeholder) interpretations.

Findings should facilitate the better management of changes that require CM-type and PM-type capabilities and actions.

As a result of the meta-review, two CM roles were re(de)fined. Linking PM and CM roles provides common ground on which practitioners of both fields can rely. A step-by-step tool for the identification of such cases in practice, when both types of roles should be played and both BoK can be utilized complementarily, was developed.

The purpose of this paper is to resolve a core issue in project management research and practice – inconsistent terminology of key project roles. This inconsistency has negative consequences on the quality and impact of research in this area.

The authors conducted an analysis of the literature and project management standards to identify both agreed-upon and inconsistent project role terms. Based on role and agency theories, the authors propose a consistent terminology.

The authors found consensus regarding four terms: project manager, project team, project management office, and program manager. However, the authors also found conflicting definitions and misuse concerning other terms, as well as use of the same title for different roles (e.g. customer, sponsor, champion). The authors define the ten core project roles and the two project entities with which they are associated.

The proposed role definitions and clear distinction between the two project entities offer clarity, reliance on existing consensus, avoidance of conflicts of interest, and clear separation of principal and agent roles. The implementation of these definitions will improve communications and enhance quality within and between both the research and the practice communities.

The article ‘researches’ construction fragmentation from the assumption that construction projects are ‘unmanageable’ (Mintzberg, 1982) in conventional terms, in an attempt to give thematic unity to this problem. Socio‐technical analysis which underlay the Building Industry Communications Research Project (BICRP) (Higgin & Jessop, 1963, 1965; TIHR, 1965; Chrichton, 1966) conducted by the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations (TIHR) from 1963 to 1965 is explored and developed, supplemented other relevant authors. The argument is conducted formally without reference to particular examples and develops the debate provoked by Connaughton (2000). Formal statement of the problem assists reinterpretation (Boyd & Wild, 1999; Wild, 2001 a) of existing material and new enquiry to clarify the conditions, if any, both necessary and sufficient, for the manageability of construction.

The clarity of requisite roles of public sector organizations (PSOs) for successful procurement of public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure in Nigeria is not well-established as the country is portrayed with the rising statistics on the haphazard pattern of operation of PPP model for infrastructure procurement. This has greatly beset the expected performance of a number of PPP projects which were intended to bridge the infrastructural deficit in the country. This study therefore examined roles the performed by PSOs in PPP infrastructure procurement with a view to delineate PSOs obligations and consequently improve project success.

The study was based on structured questionnaire survey of professionals in PSOs who have been involved in PPP infrastructure procurement in Southwestern Nigeria. The sampled professionals were drawn from a build-up of network through a referral chain by the adoption of respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method. The data collected were subjected to mean score analysis and Kruskal–Wallis test.

The study found that roles pertaining to management of variation, apportionment of penalties and abatements, select preferred bidders, establish management approaches for PPP risks are infrequently performed by PSOs in Nigeria. Whereas these roles are critical to successful procurement of PPP infrastructure as they are prerequisites for PPP infrastructural project success.

The study provides information that would be useful for developing countries with evolving PPP markets for enhanced project delivery.

Recent research has proposed the position of a project owner as the individual accountable for realizing target benefits. However, there is a lack of understanding in the literature of this role – in particular, the specific responsibilities of the project owner that can enhance benefits realization and operations performance. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The paper identifies these responsibilities in practice through two studies – a qualitative study, which includes interviews with senior executives who fund projects, and an in-depth longitudinal case study, which describes a company that continuously realizes the benefits from its projects.

The results suggest that a project owner should have 22 key responsibilities across four project phases and that an operations manager is often the most suitable candidate to fulfill this role in operations improvement projects. When performing these project responsibilities effectively, operations managers enhance benefits realization and operations improvement. Finally, the paper proposes five hypotheses for future research.

Based on agency theory, the paper increases our knowledge of the role of the project owner in practice. This new knowledge can enhance the realization of target benefits from projects and ensure a smooth transition from the project to the operations environment.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the role of requirement managers in new product development projects.

This paper is based on a case study of an industrial platform project. Sixty-eight persons were interviewed and project prerequisites and requirement specifications documents were studied. The roles of specific individuals and their formal role as requirement managers are reported.

The requirement manager's role fulfillment is performed through five major activities described as developing, anchoring, re-organizing, routinizing, and positioning. These activities are essential in order to manage working with a large flagship project.

Because the research was based on a single case study, there are of course limitations. The findings in this study may therefore not be generalized, but merely suggest other areas of research.

This paper argues that functional roles should not be taken for granted. Even though significant efforts may have been performed in order to establish a new role within a project management setting, the process of establishing new work practices is complex. Managers should therefore investigate inter-functional integration on ongoing bases.

This paper provides important insights into aspects of requirement manager's ongoing project activities.

One of the main obstacles facing project-based learning (PBL) adoption relates to a lack of understanding by teachers and students in the roles they are required to play in the learning process. This study aims to address this obstacle, so as to better promote regular adoption of PBL pedagogy in educational institutions.

The strategy was to undertake an in-depth case study of PBL courses taught in UNI-X’s undergraduate curriculum. The case study approach is particularly appropriate for this exploratory study because it allows to capture the organizational dynamics of the phenomenon better and also its ability to explain the phenomenon based on interpretation of data.

This paper presents an empirical study on the role perspective of PBL in a collaborative project environment. By drawing upon a case study of UNI-X, the authors argue that a teacher plays the roles of a designer, champion, facilitator and manager in a PBL course. To ensure that learning is effective, students should play the roles of a self-directed learner and a warrior when completing their projects. It is clear that role ambiguity and role conflict could occur in PBL courses and might even impact the effectiveness of student learning.

For researchers, this paper contributes to the PBL literature by introducing a role perspective of PBL. This study identifies a list of roles a teacher and a student could potentially play in a PBL setting. Such understanding could serve as a reminder for a teacher and a student for the roles they need to play in achieving learning outcomes of a PBL course.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the liaison role of project controllers in new product development (NPD) projects.

This paper is based on a case study of an industrial new product development project. In total, 68 in‐depth interviews were conducted and 32 meetings were observed. Using an inductive approach, this paper scrutinizes the roles of three specific individuals – their formal role as project controllers and their informal role as liaisons.

The study found that project controllers play a crucial part in the everyday work of projects – both formally and informally. Project controllers undertake important liaison activities that are not a part of their formal roles in which they extend their responsibilities to include informal activities such as peacekeeping, probing, nailing, process implementation and streamlining.

This paper argues that managers must identify and acknowledge the importance of informal liaisons and liaison activities among project members because such activities are of crucial importance for the facilitation of communication and for work‐flow coordination. By viewing the project controller as someone who is “dressing the project in numbers”, the role can be understood as a support function aimed at close interaction and cross‐functional learning, rather than a function aimed at distant supervision and control.

This paper provides important insights into informal aspects of project roles and the everyday work of project controllers.