Project Manager- Project (Pm-P) Fit and Project Success

Person-environment fit, the match between individuals and the environments in which they work, has been the focus of much research. P-E lit occurs when there is a good match between the characteristics/requirements of a particular work environment and the characteristics/expectations of the person working in that environment. Individuals tend to prefer environments that have the same "personality" that they do. The current study extended P-E lit to the lit between project managers' (PM) personality and the types of projects (P) they manage, and focuses on the relationship between PM-P fit and project success. Two hundred eighty nine Israeli PMs responded to a specially designed questionnaire that included three parts: (1) classified projects along three dimensions: novelty, complexity and technology. (2) focused on PM's personality traits relevant to these dimensions (e.g. novelty was assessed using openness to experiences items.) It was hypothesized that the greater the PM- P fit, the greater the project success. Findings supported this hypothesis. PMs whose personal profile was close to the ideal PM profile for a particular project type were more successful (both in terms of customer satisfaction and in terms of overall success). The theoretical as well as practical implications of these findings will be discussed.