What Are the Skills, Knowledge, and Behaviours Do A Project Manager Need to Manage Complex Projects In the UK, the US, and Saudi Arabia?

Abstract

The role of project managers is significant in achieving the aims and objectives of projects. Depending on their complexity, projects are split into four classifications; simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic. This study focuses only on complex projects. There is a limited number of conducted studies on complex projects in Saudi Arabia which indicates the gap of knowledge. Moreover, in order to manage complex engineering projects, project managers require set of competencies (i.e. skills, knowledge, and behaviours). To achieve that, interview and questionnaires were conducted among 13 project managers who had executed complex projects in Saudi Arabia. The primary results indicate that complex projects in Saudi Arabia consist one or more of these characteristics: large size, high cost, unclear scopes and goals, risky, interrelated stakeholders, and interrelated nonhuman resources. This dissertation covers the identification of explanation of the needed skills, knowledge, and behaviour that project managers need to manage complex projects in Saudi Arabia.