Do Project Managers Have Organizational Career Paths? A Study of the Current State of Career Development for IT Project Managers

The temporary nature of projects has changed the traditional career paths for project managers and the way project-oriented organizations prioritize their motivation tactics. By conducting a survey and testing hypotheses to explore a general pattern of employers' Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in IT and other industries, this paper finds that most employers prefer on-job training to organizational career path in motivating project managers. This preference can be partly explained by the nature of a project, which is dynamism and flexibility. Such project nature may suggest that being "transitory" be one of important characters of a project management career. Reacting to such change in HRM practices, project managers need to cope with a permanent "transitory" state with regard to their future career by focusing on an occupation rather than on a single organization. This paper also presents a fact that there is no difference between IT industry and other industries in terms of the extent of use of HRM tactics. These findings contribute to an in-depth understanding of the project management career and suggest that project managers be proactive in adjusting to change in the workplace by being more autonomous in their career development decisions based on a more dynamic work environment. This paper also suggests that IT project managers are management-oriented rather than technical-oriented and their careers will be more shaped by project management knowledge and working experiences rather than specific technical knowledge. This finding highlights the "generalist" nature of project management profession, which means that to a large extent project management knowledge can be versatile in various projects and industries.