Towards developing competency‐based measures for project managers in mass house building projects in developing countries

Abstract

Within the human resource management (HRM) genre, the identification and development of appropriate competency‐based measures is widely seen as the only viable means for validating and engendering managerial best practices. A competency‐based conceptual model is proposed towards the development of a taxonomy of project managers' (PMs') performance measures in mass house building projects (MHBPs). The model reflects elements of both performance behaviours and outcomes in predicting the performance of PMs at the construction phase of the project life cycle. Data were elicited from members of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), whose speciality is the construction of residential buildings, to test the validity of this conceptual model. The findings, which confirm the validity of the model, demonstrate the suitability and potential usefulness of this model for developing a competency‐based agenda towards the professional development of PMs involved in the implementation of MHBPs in developing countries, like Ghana. The model could, therefore, form the basis for curriculum development, recruitment and selection, team deployment and job matching, career development and succession planning to facilitate the achievement of managerial best practices in MHBPs.

Keywords:

• Competency‐based measures
• developing countries
• Ghana
• project managers
• mass house building projects

Acknowledgements

The study was undertaken under Ghana Government Scholarship reference number A.9073/2003. The authors are grateful to the four reviewers who made very robust comments to improve the quality of the paper. Sincere thanks also to all the GREDA members who responded to the survey.

Notes

1. Residential and commercial projects were grouped as one category.