THE SELF-PERCEPTION OF PROJECT MANAGERS COMPARED TO OTHER PROJECT ACTORS

This interdisciplinary study aims to investigate project managers' perceptions on their own relevance to the success of a project, and later compare these results to other project actors' perceptions. In 2005, Turner and Müller elaborated some hypotheses in an attempt to explain the omission of the project manager as a critical success factor, raising pertinent questions on their self-perception and their perception by project actors. We surveyed 740 project management actors on the relevance of 35 factors considered critical for project success, including the project manager. Data were analyzed using parametrical procedures. Results show that there was no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of the perception of the project manager's relevance to project success. Subgroup analysis indicate that project managers consider themselves critical to project success. The study indicates a change in scenario in the past few decades, and turning to sociology, psychology and practical philosophy, we alert that self-overestimation may lead to hubris and narcissism, two undesirable traits in project managers. This study is the first to investigate project managers' self-perception and compare it to their perception by other project actors.