Matching the Project Manager's Roles to Project Types: Evidence From Large Dam Projects in Africa

Large dam projects (i.e., those exceeding 15 m) often make headlines for their poor performance and their negative social and environmental impacts. The world register characterizes dams by height, purpose (e.g., irrigation), and type (e.g., rock-fill). Thus, large dams differ in many technical ways, but because practitioners still lack a framework to sort them into different types for management purposes, they tend to manage them in a one-size-fits-all manner. Shenhar and Dvir's NTCP (novelty, technology, complexity, and pace) model (2007) may be a good fit as large dams experience high unforeseen technological uncertainty. In this paper, through observations, a case study, a qualitative analysis of 42 interviews with project managers, and a quantitative analysis, we examined 30 large dam projects in Africa and sorted them into different categories according to the NTCP model. Going beyond the rather static NTCP, we identified their underlying NTCP characteristics and the variety of roles that their project managers played throughout the lifecycle, and highlighted the dynamic fit between the roles and NTCP characteristics. Since different characteristics and project manager's roles are prominent at different phases, project managers should sort dams into different types based on the NTCP model at different phases, and tailor their roles accordingly for more success.