What are the Key Enabler Competencies that Make a Successful Project Manager in Saudi Arabia?

Abstract

The construction industry in Saudi Arabia is one of the significant economic segments. Furthermore, the complexity of construction projects creates demanding challenges that require a competent project manager to succeed. Many scholars took the initiative to discover this area to respond to this need. Thus, to contribute to the body of knowledge, finding the key competencies that enable successful project managers in the Saudi Arabian construction industry is the essence of this study. Four objectives to answer the research question: identify the critical competencies of successful project managers, find out the most frequent competencies for successful project managers, compare building and infrastructure sectors in terms of these competencies and highlight the competencies needed for Industry 4.0. A literature review and quantitative methodology were used to achieve these objectives; therefore, a set of competencies discovered from the literature review formed the basis of the research questionnaire. Subsequently, 146 respondents were collected from project managers and leaders in the Saudi Arabian construction industry. The study suggests the presence of 19 competencies that could influence the success of a project manager. The top three competencies were decision-making, defining goals and communication skills. Both sectors agreed on some competencies prioritisation, such as decision-making and the competency of managing scope, time and cost and deferring in some, for instance, intellectual competence and goal orientation. Digital literacy and the other four competencies have been highlighted for Industry 4.0, and both sectors ranked them the lowest. Further, the knowledge-related competencies were ranked the least important to the project manager's success, while the top-rated ones were behavioural and managerial related. This result may encourage future research to explore other project management competencies and involve more construction sectors. The research also might benefit practitioners and construction organisations to develop these skills to enhance construction projects’ performance.