Competencies required of project managers at the design phase of mass house building projects

Contemporary management researchers argue that competency-based measures are the only viable means for refocusing project managers (PMs) on what it takes to achieve managerial excellence towards engendering their professional development in a modern competitive work environment. Subsequently, a study has identified the need to establish and match the competency profiles of PMs to the project lifecycle in Mass House Building projects (MHBPs), to help improve managerial performance on these projects from inception to completion. Drawing on the well acclaimed task-contextual organizational theory of job performance, 110 structured questionnaires containing design related behavioural competencies were delivered to Property Developers in Ghana to establish their consensus on what they consider to be the core competencies that PMs must possess at the design phase of MHBPs. The data was then subjected to multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) towards isolating the relevant competencies. The findings suggest that from the perspective of senior managers (specifically managing directors of housing development companies in Ghana), they expect PMs to possess the following competencies towards ensuring effective design management at the design phase of the lifecycle of MHBPs: job-knowledge of mass contract packaging; job knowledge of performance characteristics of materials for design of MHBPs; technical quality of strategies for managing the design process; job knowledge of thermal comfort assessment and provisions in the design of MHBPs and then job knowledge of relevant design codes, legislation and regulation for MHBPs. The paper provides an important empirical impetus to a foundation paper which has already established competencies for the construction phase of the lifecycle of MHBPs. It is therefore important that PMs focus their attention on these findings towards improving their managerial and professional development for effective design management of MHBPs.