Understanding the role of project management soft skills to increase project success rates
Abstract
This study aims to determine to what extent soft skills play a role in project success and
employee performance compared to hard skills. Also, which of the soft skills are
commonly used in project management and are more important to the teamwork and
contribute to increasing the level of performance. To this end, the following research
questions have been developed: Q1. Are soft skills as important as hard skills in project
success? Q2. What are the most important personal skills influencing stakeholders? The
questionnaire was distributed to the participants through the official website of the
Project Management institution (PMI-KSA) in Saudi Arabia. All government and
private sectors have been included in this study. The quantitative research approach was
used in a sample of project managers in Saudi Arabia. Non-probability sampling
technique has been conducted by using the snowball. The results of the data analysis
showed that the majority of respondents agree that soft skills have a significant impact
on increasing a projects' success rate and contribute to improving employee
performance. Moreover, there are some soft skills that the participants mentioned as
being more important than others, such as, problem-solving skills, dealing with
individuals, self-confidence, and leadership personality, which were prioritised from
the perspective of the participants. The soft skills discussed were varied in importance
and were concerned with improving the quality required for project management.
Companies and organisations need to pay more attention to training in the field of
personal skills of employees and of expanding their awareness as to how to implement
and develop them. Future research could continue the study by taking into account some
cultural aspects of the country, and choosing a specific activity for companies, in order
to provide more focused results and interest in a specific field, and the selection of other
soft skills that were not discussed in this study.