Critical Skills for Supervisors of Information Technology Project Managers in Government: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Case Study.

摘要

A company or government is only as good as its most qualified employees. This qualitative interpretative phenomenological study sought to understand what skills are needed to supervise government information technology (IT) project managers through their lived experience. Fifteen participants in the field of government IT were interviewed. They included five senior managers, five supervisors, and five project managers who worked as IT government contractors or employees were interviewed. The participants' responses revealed that different groups disagreed as to what skill sets were essential in supervising government IT project managers. The findings of the research highlighted that the senior managers and supervisors valued skills from a macro-level perspective, while project managers valued skills from a micro-level perspective. The results of the study indicated that the different groups of IT employees---senior management, project managers, and supervisors---deemed different skill sets as essential. There was a consensus regarding the importance of communication skills as all groups included aspects of communication in the top-five essential skills. However, the rating number allocated to these skills and the definition of the terms differed between the participants and across the groups. The results of the study brings to light the importance of developing appropriate position training for government IT supervisory positions.