PMP researchers hypothesized that senior project managers' perceptions of a project manager's competence can have an impact on career paths, the development of a project culture within organizations and the recruitment of new project managers. To address this hypothesis, the researchers set out to discover whether there is a core set of behaviours and personality characteristics that determine a superior project manager.
The researchers created a web-based questionnaire that was completed by 40 supervisors of project managers from 11 organizations around the world.
The researchers found that there is no single personality profile for an effective project manager, but that there is more consistency among their perceptions of behavioural competencies. An unexpected revelation: organizations with greater project-management maturity value project managers who can identify unconventional approaches and find new ways of implementing projects.
The researchers found a set of expected behaviours for project managers that include an ability to organize and achieve project goals, assume responsibility, initiate activity, delegate, and convince and negotiate.