The relationship between the values of Abu-Dhabi Police and the competencies of their project managers

Abstract

To ensure greater success in its regular projects, Abu-Dhabi Police (ADP) is working on: training their project managers, applying project management software, utilising the services of engineering consultants, etc. However, the performance and outcomes of its projects are still not fully meeting the desired expectations. Therefore, a study to understand some of the undermining factors was carried out. A critical literature review was carried out initially where it was established that project delivery and outcomes are affected in part by the three overarching factors of: project managers’ characteristics, organizational culture and project management culture. On this basis a conceptual framework was developed highlighting how these 3 compound factors affect project performance and outcome; and in particular how ADP’s values relate with the competencies of their project managers. The empirical aspects involved the use of mixed methods where the first part was a quantitative survey of the understanding and achievement of both ADP’s 5 values (part of organizational culture) and 15 competencies (part of project manager’s characteristics), as well as the impact of the former on the later. A questionnaire was administered to 157 people for data collection and 71 fully completed responses were obtained, representing a response rate of 45%. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the levels of achievement of ADP’s values and competencies, which were found to be high. The analysis went on to use ordered logistic regression to examine the association between the attainment of ADP’s values and competencies. The findings showed that the 5 values impact on the competencies of ADP’s project managers differently; for example, the value of ‘integrity and honesty’ impacts heavily on the 5 competencies of Integration management, Scope management, Time management, Achieving and action, and Leadership; while the value of ‘effective communication’ impacts heavily on the 3 competencies of Scope management, Cost management, and Achieving and action. An advanced training programme was subsequently developed for ADP to further increase the attainment of values and competencies by their project managers. This programme was developed in focus group discussions that involved some selected project managers who had long working experience and high understanding of ADP project schemes. A further round of focus group discussions was also used to validate this advanced training programme.