Project Manager Assignment and Its Impact on Multiple Project Management Effectiveness: An Empirical Study of IT Projects in the Lebanese Commercial Banks

Introduction

“Between 2010 and 2020, 15.7 million new project management roles will be created globally across seven project-intensive industries” (PMI, 2013c). The need of the project managers’ workforce is hence increasing substantially to accommodate the fast-growing projects adoption worldwide. The Finance and Insurance industry is considered as one of the seven project-intensive industries mentioned in the report that is always in need of competent project managers to handle its project-oriented work (PMI, 2013b). Technology-orented projects are more trending within banks specifically as many new products and services such as ATMs, online banking, mobile application are adopted to create a competitive advantage and attract customers (Kamel, 2005). Banks are also relying more on Information Technology (IT) to improve their internal transactions and data sharing in addition to their external transactions and relationships with customers (Marinč, 2013). However, banks are facing a major challenge in implementing and closing these IT projects successfully due to the absence of appropriate project management processes, tools, and techniques (Kamel, 2005; Montequín, Fernández, Fernández, and Balsera, 2016).

This paper will study the effect of the project manager (PM) assignment on project management effectiveness in a multiple project management (MPM) environment where multiple projects are being managed by one PM at the same time. The focus will be on the management of IT projects in commercial banks operating in Lebanon.

Little or no research has been done previously to study the factors that may influence the MPM effectiveness in IT projects in banks; in particular, the effect of the PM assignment on it. Such research will help Lebanese banks in identifying the main criteria in PM assignment that may help in improving the MPM effectiveness and consequently may enhance the IT projects’ outcomes, help in achieving competitive advantage and increase customer satisfaction with better products.

This study aims to identify the main criteria in PM assignment that can influence MPM effectiveness, whether positively or negatively, in the case of IT projects in Lebanese commercial banks. The study will try to answer the following question:

The sections will be as follows: At first, previous literature about project management, IT projects and banks, MPM effectiveness and PM assignment will be introduced along with previous researches that were conducted on the topics under study. The main procedures and methodology used in the research will be discussed afterwards and the project variables will be listed. The quantitative results will be presented afterwards and the major findings will be discussed. At last, conclusions will be drawn based on the findings.