The Influence of Academic Education and Formal Training on the Project Manager's Behavior

This paper addresses the influence of academic education and formal training on Project Managers' (PM) behavior. A survey was conducted to assess how PMs' academic education and formal training influence their behavior. The results have provided evidence that PMs with Engineering qualifications and background tend to be more technically oriented. This may raise concerns that PMs pre-occupation with the technical aspects of project management may overshadow the need for them to pay more attention to people management. However, PMs with the experience of working on projects at the "operational" level have been less technically oriented. Such experience seems to have enhanced PMs motivational and conflict management skills. These results highlight the need for academic and professional development programmes to provide the right balance, in content and emphasize, between the technical knowledge and the people management skills for young professionals to take project management responsibilities.