A Study of knowledge and competency levels of construction project managers : case studies in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand

Abstract

The construction project manager clearly possesses responsibility for the overall construction project in all dimensions. For a construction project to be effective, it must be managed by a project manager who exhibits high competencies. The aims of this research are 1) to rank the important knowledge areas of project managers working in construction companies in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand, 2) to study their competency levels to apply the important knowledge areas in each country and 3) to propose the recommendations to improve their competency levels in each country. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Relative Level Index were used for ranking the important knowledge areas and analyzing the levels of competency. The results were validated by the evidences obtained from the questionnaires. The results of this research indicated that time, quality, cost, and safety management, are the top four ranks among 13 important knowledge areas in each country. Their competency levels to apply these important knowledge areas are from low to medium level in Cambodia and Lao PDR, and from medium to high level in Thailand. From the gaps between important knowledge areas and competency levels, there are some weak competencies of local project managers. Therefore, the recommendations for their competency improvements were proposed such as improving competency of safety management for project managers in Cambodia, competency of time management for project managers in Lao PDR, and competency of quality management for project managers in Thailand.