Understanding construction project manager’s job: time use and skills needed

Entendiendo el trabajo del administrador de obra: uso del tiempo y habilidades requeridas
Ignacio Pavez1 and Luis F. Alarcón2
Abstract
In the construction industry it would be unthinkable to conduct a project without a project
manager, not only because there is a demonstrable link between the competence of top team
members and the overall performance of the project, but also because it is stated that a project’s
success depends directly upon the leadership qualities of project managers and their ability to
bring the best out in their team. This paper shows the results of an exploratory study that tried to
identify the skills needed by Chilean construction project managers and how they spend their
time, to develop strategies that allow improve their performance. The research methodology
included a focus group, semi-structured interviews, forms to evaluate the skills needed and the
activities they must carry out, a time management workshop and a real time monitoring of daily
project manager’s activities. The results indicate that the main characteristic of Chilean project
manager’s job is the great number of social interactions (75% of their work-time) to assure the
achievement of project goals. To do that, however, it is necessary to have a good development of
social skills that are not part of the abilities they acquire in their academic education.
Keywords
Project manager, project management, skills, lean construction.

Resumen
En la industria de la construcción sería impensable dirigir un proyecto sin un administrador de
obra, no solo porque hay una relación directa demostrable entre la competencia de miembros del
equipo superior y la actuación global del proyecto, sino porque además se plantea que el éxito del
proyecto depende directamente de las competencias del administrador de obra, su calidad de
liderazgo y su habilidad para desplegar lo mejor de su equipo de trabajo. Este artículo presenta
los resultados de un estudio exploratorio, realizado para identificar las habilidades requeridas por
los administradores de obra chilenos y cómo éstos usan su tiempo, con el fin de desarrollar
estrategias que les permitan mejorar su desempeño. La metodología de investigación utilizada
incluyó el desarrollo de focus group; entrevistas semi-estructuradas; formularios para la
evaluación de las actividades que llevan a cabo y las habilidades requeridas para desempeñar su
cargo; un taller de gestión del tiempo y un monitoreo de las actividades diarias realizadas por
ellos en un día típico de trabajo. Los resultados muestran que la característica fundamental del
trabajo del administrador de obra chileno es el gran número de interacciones sociales que
desarrolla (75% de su tiempo de trabajo) para asegurar el cumplimiento de los objetivos del
proyecto. Sin embargo, las habilidades sociales requeridas para desarrollar dicha labor no son
adquiridas en la formación académica tradicional.
Palabras clave
Administradores de obra, administración de proyectos, lean construction.

1
MSc, Part-Time Professor, School of Engineering, Universidad de Talca, Casilla 306, Correo 22, Curicó, Chile, Phone +56 75
201700, ipavez@ing.puc.cl.
2
PhD, Professor of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Dept. of Construction Engineering and Management, Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Correo 22, Santiago, Chile, Phone +56 2 3544245, lalarcon@ing.puc.cl
1. Introduction
The increasing competitiveness of the Chilean construction industry, resulting from
globalization and changing clients’ needs, has motivated construction companies to evaluate and
implement new management tools and philosophies to achieve competitive advantage by doing
better construction projects (lower cost, lower schedules, better quality, better productivity and
better safety). To reach these goals, since year 2000 more than twelve construction companies
have been implementing lean construction practices (Alarcón et al. 2006; Alarcón, 1997)
supported by the research team of the Center for Excellence in Production Management
(GEPUC) from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
These companies have committed to work together on several implementations to improve
project’s performance following lean construction principles (identify and reduce waste,
performance measuring systems, benchmarking, last planner system, 4D modeling, and
subcontractors evaluation methods, among others), enhancing their levels of productivity,
improving the reliability of work flows, identifying their main causes of wastes, improving the
involvement of middle managers and improving the management control (Alarcón et al. 2005).
In spite of the good results achieved, during the phase of implementation there were some factors
that hindered it, which were related with human, cultural and organizational issues (Alarcón et
al., 2006). To cope with it, companies decided to guide their collaborative efforts related to the
implementation of lean construction to an organization development program centered in their
professional staff (Pavez, 2007).
One of the focuses of this study was the review of the Project Manager (PM) role, because
besides their great impact on project’s success (Dainty et al. 2005a; Crawford, 2005; Dulaimi and
Langford, 1999) it was possible to establish that they are the key actor in the implementation of
the new production philosophies as lean construction (Seguel, 2004).
This paper seeks to identify the skills needed by Chilean construction PMs and how they
spend their time, to develop strategies that allow them to improve their performance and to build
a model for professional development that could include specific training activities.
The research methodology was mainly qualitative, because there was little information about
the research problem at the beginning of the study and because the variables that define the
problem were not known (Hernández et al., 2003; Naoum, 2001). Given the research approach
selected, it is not sought generalize the
results obtained, but it is expected that they Table 1. Characterization of the companies that
contribute to understand the phenomenon participated on the research
under study and to establish guidelines for Company Type of projects company do Size Years
future works in this field.
Housing
The research activities included a focus Company 1 High rise building Medium 17
group, semi-structured interviews, forms to
Company 2 High rise building Large 36
evaluate the skills needed and the activities
PM’s must carry out, a time management Company 3 Housing Large 28
High rise building
workshop and a real time monitoring of daily
PM’s tasks. In these activities participated a Company 4 Light industrial facilities
Civil works
Large 37
total of 30 PMs coming from six medium and
large construction companies which execute Company 5 Housing High rise building
Medium 18
projects in housing, high rise buildings, light
Company 6 Housing Large 27
industrial facilities and civil works (Table 1).

1
 The results provide useful issues for a comprehensive diagnostic of the subject, that combine
an assessment of the skills needed, what activities they actually do and how PMs’ spend their
time. It could help companies and professionals to improve PM’s time use and so that, improves
project’s performance. For Chilean construction companies, this is a great step to improve the
understanding of PM’s job, which will allow enhancing the effectiveness of the implementation
of lean construction by building a model for professional development.

2. Background

2.1. Studies of Project manager’s job in construction

In the construction industry it would be unthinkable to conduct a construction project without
a Project Manager (PM), not only because there is a demonstrable link between the competence
of top team members and the overall performance of the organization (Kakabadse, 1991), but
also because it is stated that a project’s success depends directly upon the leadership qualities of
PMs and their ability to bring the best out in their team (Dainty et al. 2005a; Crawford, 2005;
Dulaimi and Langford, 1999).
For that reason, given the technological and cultural changes that have rapidly taken place in
the last decade, researchers and practitioners have developed a special interest in improving the
knowledge about the PM’s work, in order to support their performance and, therefore, obtaining
more successful projects (Fig. 1).

Project
Project Project Organizational
Manager Project Organizational
Manager Performance Performance
Competence Performance Performance
Competence

Fig 1. Relationship between PM’s competences and Organizational Performance (Crawford, 2005).

Until now, however, most of the investigations have been centered in studies of leadership
and in defining the necessary competencies (competences or skills) to carry out that position,
understanding as competency a series of different characteristic, behaviors and traits necessary
for effective job performance (Abraham et al. 2001).
Given the current condition of the matter in this field, this research seeks to complement the
understanding of PM’s job by adding to the competencies (competences or skills) identified in
the literature (Dainty et al. 2005a; Crawford, 2005; Odusami, 2002; Edum-Fotwe and McCaffer,
2000), an empirical evidence related to PMs’ time use.
Hereinafter, will be shown studies related to the competencies, competences and skills that
construction PMs must develop to be effective at job and then, a brief description of studies
related to time use in executives.

2.1.1. Necessary skills to be an effective project leader

The necessary skills to be an effective project leader was a matter of a research carried out by
Odusami (2002), who define a skill, following the work of Katz (1974), as an ability that can be
developed which is manifested in performance (an ability to translate knowledge into action). In
this study the author wants to identify the most important skills of an effective project leader as
perceived by the significant actors in the construction industry (clients, consultants and

2
contractors). Based on an extensive bibliographical review, Odusami (2002) chose 13 skills to
build a questionnaire for qualifying the importance of each one of them.
The skills selected to be evaluated were: communication, decision making, delegation,
financial management, leadership and motivation, listening, negotiation, organizing, planning and
goal setting, problem solving, quality management, technical knowledge and time management.
The definition of each skill (to understand what it should be evaluated) was extracted from a
work made by Gushgar et al. (1997).
The results of this work showed that the most important skill is decision making for the
client and for the three groups combined. The consultants agreed that leadership and motivation
is the most important skill for the project leader, followed by decision making. The contractors
ranked communication as the most important skill to be an effective project leader. In the overall
analysis, there were no significant differences in the perceptions of the three significant actors
regarding the ranking of the skills (Odusami, 2002).

2.1.2. Competencies needed to be a high performance construction PM

Over the last decade there has been a growing emphasis on the identification of
competencies (and/or competences) people need to acquire to have an effective (competence
model) or a superior performance (competency model) at work, but the term competency (and/or
competence) still remain confuse due to the different existent approaches to this issue (Delamare
le Deist and Winterton, 2005; Crawford, 2005).
In this sense, it can possible to establish that there are two different approaches to work in
this field (Delemare le Deist and Winterton, 2005; Dainty et al. 2005a; Crawford, 2005; Saracho,
2005). The first one, known as competency model, was developed by McClelland (1973) and has
been mainly used in USA. This approach is centered on personal attributes that a person draws
upon as part of their work activities. It is mainly used in high positions where people have more
freedom to perform their job (Saracho, 2005). The second approach, known as competence
model, was developed and mainly used in Europe. This approach is centered on person’s ability
to comply with a range of externally agreed standards. It is mainly used in low hierarchic
positions (Saracho, 2005).
Having in mind both concepts, a study carried out by Dainty et al. (2005a) tried to identify
what competencies could define a high performance PM, to build a model for predicting PM’s
performance. To carry out that work it was used the competency model, which has the well-
established McBer job competency assessment process, initially developed by McClelland
(1973).
The results of this work showed that there are 12 competencies that differentiate average
from superior PMs. These competencies are: achievement orientation, initiative, information
seeking, focus on client’s needs, impact and influence, directiveness, teamwork and cooperation,
team leadership, analytical thinking, conceptual thinking, self-control and flexibility. Among
these competencies, “self-control” and “team leadership” were statistically validated as the most
predictive behaviors of effective project management performance (Dainty et al., 2005a).

2.1.3. Assessment of time demands of coordination activities in construction projects

A close related research concerning time use of PMs was carried out by De Saram and
Ahmed (2001). In this study the authors point out the importance of the coordination function in

3
the building process and the lack of formal understanding on how day-to-day coordination is
actually achieved on a construction project. Due to the lack of information regarding this issue,
the research was directed at identifying what activities are performed to achieve coordination
and, which among those, are the most important and more time-consuming for a construction
coordinator (project manager).
From the literature review the authors settled down a list of 64 activities, which were
classified on five categories: providing leadership, facilitating, controlling, communicating and
recording. The results showed that “identifying strategic activities and potential delays” and
“ensuring the timeliness of all work” are the most important activities. On the other hand,
“Conducting regular meetings and project reviews” and “analyzing the project performance,
detecting variances and dealing with their effects” (16th and 17th, respectively in order of
importance) appear to be the most time-consuming activities.
Although this research is a good advance to improve the formal understanding of how
construction coordination is achieved, the actual time use of PMs to lead a construction project
has not been scientifically studied yet. Therefore, an empirical study of what PMs really do could
be an important step to improve the understanding of PM’s job.

2.2. Studies of time use in executives

Since Mintzberg (1990; 2005) published the famous article “The manager’s job: Folklore
and Fact” in 1975, there has been a growing interest to know what managers really do, because in
contrast to the activities people thought they do, typically associated with the Fayol’s
management functions (planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling), manager’s do a quite
different activities that seem to be their work quite often chaotic.
Indeed, the author could document a series of facts that collapsed the myths about manager’s
job and their way to work, changing the conception about how executives work and what skills
they really need. Among these characteristic are: the continuously interruption of their work, their
exhausting rhythm of work, the lack of a sort schedule for planning their activities (they have to
react to the needs of the moment), their preference for oral means, telephone calls and
conversations instead of documentation (between 60% to 80% of their time it is spent in spoken
communication), the pleasure for the “rumor” as the source of the reality of tomorrow and their
central role in the capture of external information for bringing it to their subordinates, among
others.
The characteristics of the manager’s job imply that the strategic data of the enterprise were
holding on the executive’s mind and so that, their capacity to delegate effectively were hindered
(they concentrate the necessary information). It also caused that they were inured to work in
excess, executing lot of tasks in a superficial manner and increasing their working pressure. This
situation is the same at the present (Mintzberg, 2005).
According to the results of this study, Mintzberg (1990; 2005) concluded in conceptual terms
that the manager’s job consists of three kinds of roles instead of the Fayol’s functions. These
roles are: interpersonal roles (figurehead, leader and liaison), informational roles (monitor,
disseminator and spokesman) and decisional roles (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource
allocator and negotiator).
Due to the impact and novelty of the Mintzberg’s work in terms of the results obtained and
the research methodology used, this study have been replied by others researchers in other

4
contexts to study different issues. This is the Chilean case, because the methodology proposed by
Mintzberg (1990; 2005) was used to study the executive leadership (Enei, 1988). In this work, the
author made a direct observation of three high Chilean managers accompanying them for a week.
The way in which the data were analyzed in this study was very interesting, because besides
the description of the manager’s work, the time spent with interlocutors and communication
means used was also quantified and analyzed, bringing a clearer view of how executives work.

2.3. Overview of the literature review

By reviewing the literature about management and construction management, it is possible to
observe that the manager’s work is vital to enhance the performance of both projects and
organizations. So that, there has been a growing interest to know what competencies,
competences or skills they need and how they spend their time.
Construction industry, however, has not approached that problem in a systematic way.
Indeed, there are few publications related to this issue and most of them have been related to
leadership or the necessary skills to be an effective PM. There is no evidence about scientific
publications related to time use in construction professionals in the extensive literature review
carried out.

3. Research description
In the absence of previous literature on how construction PMs spend their time, the research
was conceived as an exploratory study. Therefore, it was used mainly qualitative methods to
obtain and to analyze data (Hernández et al. 2003; Naoum 2001).

3.1. Research objectives and research questions

Due to the research is an exploratory study, the formulations of hypothesis does not make
sense. These are replaced by research questions associated to each research objective (Hernández
et al. 2003; Naoum 2001). The research was three main objectives, with their respective research
questions:
1. Delineate the skills needed to perform the PM role as perceived by Chilean project
managers. In order to achieve this objective the following research questions were
outlined: ¿What skills PM need to be effective at work? ¿Which of these skills are
considering most important? ¿Which of these skills are most difficult to put in practice?
2. Provide empirical evidence concerning PM’s time use, so as to support improvements on
their performance. In order to achieve this objective, the following research questions
were outlined: ¿What does the typical workday of a PM consist of? ¿Who do PMs must
relate to? ¿What communication means do PMs use? ¿Which are the tasks (activities) that
consume most time? ¿What kinds of time dysfunctions use are common in their work?
3. Provide recommendations to improve PMs’ time use.

3.2. Research methodology

Since the research was conceived as an exploratory study, the research methodology had
three stages according to the depth reached on each one of them.

5
3.2.1. Stage 1: Getting the perception of PM’s about the skills needed to perform their job
The purpose of this stage was obtaining the perception of a sample of PMs about what skills
they need to perform effectively their job. Because there were not previous studies about this
topic on the Chilean construction industry, it was necessary to get this information from qualified
informants. To do this job, a focus group with PMs was carried out to define, in their words, what
skills they need. In these activity participated 15 PM from the six companies that toke part in the
overall research (Table 3).
As a result of this stage it was possible to obtain 9 skills: change adaptability,
communication capacity, negotiation capacity, be methodic and organized, leadership, technical
capacity, being executive (decision making and time management), emotional intelligence and
systemic vision.

3.2.2. Stage 2: Evaluating the importance and the difficulty to put in practice the PM’s skills
needed
The purpose of this stage was to evaluate the importance and the difficulty to put in practice
the PMs’ skills needed to perform effectively their job. To do that, it was designed and applied a
form to evaluate the importance and the difficulty of the skills that PMs need. The form was
made by merging the skills coming from the focus group (Stage 1) with the skills proposed by
Odusami (2002).
The form applied consisted of 17 skills that maintained the definitions proposed by Odusami
(2002) in those that coming from this source and it was generated new definitions for those that
coming from the Stage 1. To define the new skills (Stage 1) it was following the format used by
Odusami (2002), originally adapted from the work of Gushgar et al. (1997). For a proper
understanding of the meaning of the skills that constitute the form, the definitions of each one of
them are given in Table 2. The form was applied in personal interviews to 17 PMs from the six
companies that participated in the overall research (Table 3).

3.2.3. Stage 3: Time use study

To study time use in executives (the case of PM) – which are people that are able to use time
at their own discretion – there are different tools that can be used (Rodríguez, 2004), among
them: (1) direct observation of the executive’s work, accompanying them during several
complete workdays; (2) an executive’s personal log of the tasks at 15 to 30 minute intervals; (3)
interviews to executives with a guideline, in which they are asked to assign percentages of their
time dedicated to the accomplishment of different tasks; (4) gather a group of executives and ask
them to discuss their time management and the difficulties that normally arise; and (5) interviews
to executive assistants about their bosses’ time distribution.
In the present study, techniques (2) and (4) were used through a time management workshop
carried out by the authors. In this activity, problems related to time management were discussed
in detail and a three-day follow-up was also done with 7 PMs in which each one of them had to
write down their tasks every 15 minutes. With this work it was obtained a total of 21 days for
analysis purposes.
Table 3 shows the participants in each research stage and Table 4 shows a characterization of
the PMs who made the individual measures of the daily activities carried out by them.

6
 Table 2. Glossary of the skills used in the form to evaluate their importance and difficulty
Skill Definition
Decision making Ability to take appropriate action under constraints of time, information, and resources.
Leadership and Ability to make correct decisions for firm and then influence others to contribute to
motivation attaining firm’s goals.
Team work Ability to built and establish good team relationships to assure the fulfillment of project
goals.
Time management Ability to successfully manage multiple tasks within given time constraints.
Delegation Ability to effectively distribute tasks to other members of the organization.
Systemic view Ability “to see the trees without losing the capacity to see the forest”. It means, understand
local and urgent problems but taking in mind the aims and goals of the project.
Negotiation Ability to engage in a two-way discussion and achieve firm’s interests.
Planning and goal setting Ability to assess and set objectives for firms, then plot a path to achieve those objectives.
Communication Ability to interact effectively with others at all levels within and outside organization.
Emotional intelligence Ability to feel, understand, control and modify own and other’s emotional states.
Listening Ability to receive and effectively process information provided by others.
Problem solving Ability to analyze adverse conditions or conflicts, identify root causes, provide a practical
solution and then implement it.
Technical knowledge Ability to understand complex elements required to effectively complete tasks associated
with a given profession.
Change adaptability Ability to manage uncertainty and to adapt yourself quickly to the constant environment
changes (technological, economical, social, etc.).
Quality management Ability to manage production of goods or services within a clearly defined set of
expectations.
Organizing Ability to align resources in such a way as to be the most beneficial for the firm.
Financial management Ability to understand financial statements and financial ratios, and to deal with accounting
firms and financial institutions.

Table 3. Sample of PMs by each Table 4. Characterization of the PMs who made the
research stage individual measures of daily activities carried out by
Company Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 them (C=Company)
Company 1 3 4 4 Type of project C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 Total
Company 2 2 1 - Housing 1 - - - - 1 2
Company 3 - 2 6 High rise building 2 - 1 - - - 3
Company 4 3 2 1 Light industrial facilities - - - - - 1 1
Company 5 5 5 - Civil works - - - 1 - - 1
Company 6 2 3 2 Total 3 0 1 1 0 2 7
Total 15 17 13

7
4. Results

4.1. Skills needed to be an effective project manager

The form made in the second stage of this Table 5. Evaluation of the importance and the
study, was used to determine the importance difficulty to put in practice de skills needed to be
and the difficulty to apply the skills needed to an effective PM
be an effective PM. The form was answered by
Importance Difficulty
17 PMs and it was constituted by the 17 skills Skill (nota from 1 to 10) (answer frequency)
defined in Table 2. Average σ Score Rank
Qualifying each skill from 1 to 10, the
1. Decision making 9,25 1,13 3 10
importance was determined. In this scale, 1
2. Leadership and 9,16 1,26 1 15
means that the skill is not important and 10 motivation
means that the skill is very important. On the
3. Team work 9,13 1,20 2 14
other hand, the evaluation of the difficulty was
made by marking with an X the five most 4. Time management 8,88 1,15 10 1

difficult skills to apply by themselves on a day- 5. Delegation 8,75 1,00 8 2

by-day construction work. 6. Systemic view 8,72 1,73 4 8

To compare the relative importance of the 7. Negotiation 8,56 1,7 5 5
skills, an average score for each one was built. 8. Planning and goal 8,47 1,65 2 12
To evaluate their difficulty, it was quantified the setting
answer frequency to the five most difficult skills 9. Communication 8,44 1,41 3 9
to apply, according to PM’s answers in the 10. Emotional 8,38 2,13 8 4
form. It is important to notice that, as the intelligence

research was conceived as an exploratory study, 11. Listening 8,31 1,14 8 3

it was not possible to obtain the desired sample 12. Problem solving 8,31 1,49 3 11
to do the rights statistics. Thus, the results 13. Technical 8,31 1,66 1 16
should be only seen as a reference to understand knowledge
the overall analysis of PM’s job. 14. Change adaptability 8,31 1,74 2 13
According to the PMs’ answers, the most 15. Quality 8,19 1,28 4 7
important skills were decision making, management
leadership and motivation, and team work, 16. Organizing 8,00 2,61 4 6
while the least important was the financial 17. Financial 6,69 3,18 0 17
management. On the other hand, the most management

difficult skills to put in practice were time

management and delegation.
Table 5 shows a summary of the skill’s evaluation. In this table, the most important skills are
bold written and the most difficult to apply are shadow in gray. It can be seen that the intersection
between “bold” and “shadow” represents the most important skills and the most difficult to apply,
so they have a great potential to improve PM’s performance by training. These skills are: time
management and delegation.

8
4.2. PM’s time use

4.2.1. General analysis

In general terms, according to the data
Table 6. PM’s time demanding activities
obtained from the measurements, it is possible to
(descending order)
identify 5 characteristics in attendance to PMs’
job: Minutes Percentage Cumulative
N° Activity Description (%) Percentage
1. Great variety of themes that they must (%)
handle simultaneously, each one of them 1. Project planning 1.122 9,3% 9%
generally associating with a quick decision 2. Meetings with 1.080 8,9% 18%
making. owner/OTI
2. Extensive workday, averaging 11.3 hours 3. On-site work supervision 1.050 8,7% 27%
and reception
per day. It means a 28% overtime respect
4. Project meetings 895 7,4% 34%
to the legal Chilean workday.
5. Coordination meetings 840 7,0% 41%
3. Great number of different people to whom with subcontractors and
they must relate to (in some days more suppliers
than 15, without considering the people 6. Revision and updates of 695 5,8% 47%
that work inside the project). technical project data
7. Negotiation with 690 5,7% 53%
4. Great number and intensity of subcontractors and
communication tasks that they must carry suppliers
out everyday, averaging nearly 75% of 8. Activities not related 525 4,3% 57%
with production
their work-time interacting with other
9. Quality assurance 480 4,0% 61%
people. meetings
5. Absolute responsibility of the project’s 10. Contract documentation 450 3,7% 65%
outcome, even replacing the tasks of checking
subordinates in extreme cases such as an 11. E-mail, mail and personal 442 3,7% 68%
agenda checking
illness.
12. On-site work 440 3,6% 72%
coordination
4.2.2. PM’s most time demanding activities 13. Meeting preparation 420 3,5% 76%
A first approach in relation to the PMs’ time 14. Meetings with 415 3,4% 79%
use was the definition of what activities demanded headquarters (meetings
with superiors)
most of their time. By doing so, the measurements
15. Material and equipment 375 3,1% 82%
were analyzed and the tasks were classified request ,tracking and
according to three parameters: activity type in control
terms of its relation to a particular function or 16. Project performance 355 2,9% 85%
control
technique (planning, control, technical analysis,
17. Others (activities 17-27) 1.808 15% 100%
negotiation, conflict solving, etc), person to whom
the PM interacts with while the activity is
performed (subordinates, subcontractors, owner/OTI, others), and communication mean used (see
Table 6). The analysis showed that the tasks which consumed most of the work time (almost
50%) were:
1. Project planning. Represents every activity related to the project planning at any level
(strategic, tactic and operational).

9
 2. Meetings with the owner/OTI (Owner Technical Inspection). Include all activities that
imply a meeting (formal or informal) between the PM and the owner or the OTI.
Meetings with the owner are generally formal and are discussed economic issues mainly.
On the other hand, meetings with the OTI have a more technical character.
3. On-site work supervision and reception. Including all activities oriented to assure the
compliance of standards and deadlines by reviewing the on-site work.
4. Project meetings. These are all PM’s meetings with the key project positions, including
architects, structural engineers, risk prevention officers and professional staff (technical
office and site managers).
5. Coordination meetings with subcontractors and suppliers. These meetings have mainly a
technical character and only subcontractors and suppliers participate. The objective is
coordinate subcontracted jobs and deliveries (suppliers).
6. Revision and updates of technical project data. This activity is mainly deskwork and is
related to the revision and updating of all of the project’s technical documentation (project
book, quality assurance protocols, safety, material specifications, plans, etc).

4.2.3. Frequent interlocutors and communication means used

A second analysis includes a replica of the analysis carried out by Henry Mintzberg (1990;
2005) and Luis Enei (1988), adapted to the construction industry. These analysis include the
frequent interlocutors PMs’ use to perform their job and the communication means employed.
The detail of this analysis is presented in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, highlighting:
 Frequent Interlocutors: Most of the PM’s relationship time is invested, as expected, with
they subordinates (36%), as PM holds the highest hierarchical rank. Secondly are his
colleagues or “laterals” (20%), which are people related to the project in an advisory
manner (architects, structural engineers, central office, etc.). In third place are the
subcontractors (16%), which, depending on the stage of the project and the company
characteristics, can hold up to one third of the PM’s relationship time. Finally, the last
important interlocutor is the owner/OTI (14%), which is the client receiving the service.
Another interesting thing is that only a 46% of the interrelationship time was spent in
people who belong to the company (subordinates, superiors and central office) and nearly
a 48% of the interrelationship time was spent with people who didn’t work on-site
(laterals, superiors, suppliers, central office and client/OTI).
 Communication Means: Fig. 3 shows that meetings consume in average nearly a third of
the workday (35%) and sometimes they can even take over more than half of it.
According to this, it can be inferred that one of the most effective ways to enhance the
current PM’s time use, is to train them in effective meeting management. The second
place is the deskwork (25%), which is an independent task that it is not generated from
the interaction with other people. In this activity is included all tasks related to
documentation analysis, updating and checking information, and meeting preparation,
among others. It is a strictly personal analysis concerning the project execution. Finally, it
is interesting to emphasize the fact that on-site visits only consume a 7% of the workday,
which indicates that the PM delegates the execution tasks to other positions.

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 Fig. 2. Frequent interlocutors PM’s have to Fig. 3. Communication means used by PMs
relate to. to perform their job.

4.2.4. Time use dysfunctions

A dysfunction is understood as any factor and/or situation that is ominous for an effective
time use (Casado, 2002). In this study, the detected dysfunctions come from two sources: a
qualitative analysis of discussions with PMs and an organizational diagnosis made by the authors
in the same companies (Pavez, 2007). To categorize the time use dysfunctions, Casado’s (2002)
categorization was used, which establishes 4 types of them: directive’s behavior, organization
structure, team and environment. The result of this analysis is showed in Table 7.
Table 7. Time use dysfunctions regarding PM’s job.
Dysfunction Description
Directive’s  Inability to say no.
behavior  Lack of prioritization.
 Unclear perception of their main functions.
 Problems with delegation capacity.
 Lack of qualification in management’s “soft” subjects that empower the time use (time management, leadership,
etc).
Organization  Hierarchical structures centered in the PM’s qualities. It widens the range of activities that the PM must develop,
Structure and also, increases the inefficiency in delegation and reduces the time that PM spends in their main functions.
 Vague definition of roles and responsibilities, which generates role duality and effort duplication.
Team  Highly PM’s dependant team. In most companies, the PM position is empowered at the expense of the rest of
the team.
 Lack of qualified personnel to support the PM’s work in certain specific functions, which make it difficult
delegation.
 Unbalance between the load of work and the team’s capacity to undertake it, implying frequent workday
extensions.
Environment The main problem detected was the effect of the organizational culture in the PM’s time use. Examples of that are:
 Staying at work until late hours is well seen.
 Projects are to be done under pressure.
 The work should be highly dependent on the PM abilities and criteria.

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5. Conclusions and recommendations
Manager’s effectiveness depends in a good way upon the knowledge about their own work
(Mintzberg 1990; 2005). Thus, the current research represents an important advance to address
this issue, concerning the analysis of three central points: the skills needed as perceived by
Chilean PMs, the main activities carried out by them and the specific aspects that can be
improved so as to serve as a baseline for future researches.
For Chilean PMs, one of the main challenges is realize the eminently social character of their
job, which is characterized by the great number of interrelations (approximately a 75% of the
work) and the intensive communication activities in which their social skills are fundamentals to
their performance. Indeed, a socially skillful PM may build more motivated teams, have better
negotiation results and improve the communication between the different project stakeholders.
The social character of PMs’ job implies a redefinition of the position in terms of their
responsibilities and results, as it encourages inquiring the causes (main aspects) that trigger the
achievement of successful projects. This situation, which has been poorly approached by the
industry, has become more relevant in the last years with the generation of innovating researches
that invite to view projects from another perspective, among them: the relevance of commitments
to increase the reliability of work (Macomber and Howell, 2003; Flores, 1997), the effect of
humor (Ogunlana et al. 2006), the learning organization (Chinowsky et al. 2007), the project
affinity (Dainty et al. 2005b) and the emotional intelligence on leadership behavior (Butler and
Chinowsky, 2006).
Another relevant aspect of PMs’ job, is to clearly define what are their key functions in the
project so as to invest time in activities that add more value to their performance. This would not
only help to improve PMs’ personal effectiveness, but also would allow them to make time
available for innovation and productivity improvement, which currently is not available.
It is important to notice that, even PMs needs mainly social skills, the Chilean civil
engineering curriculums do not educate construction engineers with these skills, so they have to
acquire them through the experience (Pavez, 2007). It presents a great challenge as for academics
as for practitioners, so these skills have the major impact in project performance (Dainty et al.
2005a). A good way to star, according to the results obtained, could be meeting management and
the development of skills related to personal effectiveness as time management and/or delegation.
Finally, one of the greatest challenges of the company’s top management is to train highly
qualified PMs, retain and motivate them, in order to keep their know-how and assure their
permanent contribution to the company. In this sense, one of the most contentious issues, is the
extensive workday they have to cope up with, which can produce stress, burnout or create
personal conflicts such as a trade-off between family-work time (Lingard and Sublet, 2003;
Lingard, 2003; Lingard and Francis, 2005). To deal with this problem, it is important to state that
many of the excessive workday problems have their origins in unconscious pressures exerted by
the company’s top management deeply rooted in the organization culture, such as, associating
time of work as a status symbol, or rewarding (even in an unconscious way) the excess of work.
In order to solve this problem, it is recommended to discuss the issue openly, generate solutions
in agreement with the challenge (such as the creation of proper indicators based on the desired
results and not only based in productivity) and taking proper measures that encourage
compatibility between personal and professional time, such as an effective limitation of the
workday.

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