This paper is focussed on the problems of competencies of project managers in the corporate practice of metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic. The authors aim to assess the requirements imposed on the position of a project manager from the point of view of the corporate management. The authors identify the basic areas playing a significant role in assessment of project managers’ competencies. They represent procedures applicable within selection of a project manager. Subsequently, the authors present outcomes of a survey, these outcomes show requirements of corporate management represented by human resource department managers of metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic when recruiting project managers in practice

J. Kostalova

M. Bednarikova

M. Patak

English

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131METALURGIJA 57 (2018) 1-2, 131-134J. KOSTALOVA, M. BEDNARIKOVA, M. PATAKTHE REQUIRED COMPETENCIES OF PROJECT MANAGERS IN METALLURGICAL COMPANIES IN THE CZECH REPUBLICReceived – Primljeno: 2017-05-20Accepted – Prihvaćeno: 2017-08-10Preliminary Note – Prethodno priopćenjeJ. Kostalova (jana.kostalova@upce.cz, M. Bednarikova, M. Patak, Uni-versity of Pardubice, Czech RepublicThis paper is focussed on the problems of competencies of project managers in the corporate practice of metallurgi-cal companies in the Czech Republic. The authors aim to assess the requirements imposed on the position of a project manager from the point of view of the corporate management. The authors identify the basic areas playing a significant role in assessment of project managers’ competencies. They represent procedures applicable within selection of a project manager. Subsequently, the authors present outcomes of a survey, these outcomes show re-quirements of corporate management represented by human resource department managers of metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic when recruiting project managers in practice.Key words: metallurgical companies, project management, project manager competencies, Czech RepublicINTRODUCTIONSuccessful implementation of changes in the corpo-rate environment is one of the most important condi-tions of prosperity of business entities. Changes in the corporate environment of various characters are usually implemented in the form of projects. To make sure these projects are implemented successfully, it is suitable to apply project management methods and tools [1]. A positive impact of project management on increasing the success of project implementation has been validat-ed by a number of studies, e.g. Lappe and Spang [2], or Joslin and Müller [3]. To assess the corporate project management maturity, it is possible to make use of a project management maturity model [4]. A number of these models have been built up on the concept of as-sessment of competencies and knowledge of project managers in the evaluated company, and one of the ar-eas most of them assess when evaluating the project management maturity is the area of competencies of project managers in the area of project management and related areas.LITERATURE REVIEWThe basic theoretical project management concepts can be found within international project management standards, i.e. mainly the standards of three largest in-ternational professional associations in the area of pro-ject management, the Project Management Institute (PMI), which specifies the project management stand-ard in the publication titled A Guide to the Project Man-ISSN 0543-5846METABK 57(1-2) 131-134 (2018)UDC – UDK 669-338.93.083.9:331.98.007.1:339:32:485.0=111agement Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) [5], and the Association for Project Management Group (APM), creating the standard of PRojects IN Controlled Envi-ronments 2 ( PRINCE 2) [6]. And particularly, the Inter-national Project Management Association (IPMA), cre-ating the international standard of IPMA Competence Baseline, designed as an overview of technical, behav-ioural and contextual competencies of project managers (PMs), competencies required for successful project implementation in practice [7]. Within these standards, it is possible to obtain a certificate of the level of the project manager’s knowledge.An important role within assessment of PMs’ compe-tencies is played by qualifications requirements, i.e. the achieved education and specialization, general skills, professional theoretical and practical skills, soft skills, certification within any of the international project man-agement standards, and practical experience [8].Apart from the international project management standards, a suitable scope of knowledge and skills of PMs or project team members can also be defined on the basis of some other available data. As a tool for en-hanced human resource management, the Czech Re-public (CZE) has created the database of the National System of Occupations, defining the scope of work of the project manager and the recommended qualification requirements in the field of professional skills, general skills and soft skills [9]. For the position of a PM, it is possible to use the cur-rent employees, or it is also possible to try to find em-ployees among outsiders, or to make use of the services of experts in the area of project management. What is also flexible is the concept of the contract, i.e. whether it is possible to employ a PM on a temporary or a long-term basis and to make use of their experience in some 132J. KOSTALOVA et al.: THE REQUIRED COMPETENCIES OF PROJECT MANAGERS IN METALLURGICAL COMPANIES... METALURGIJA 57 (2018) 1-2, 131-134future projects, to enter into a full-time or part-time em-ployment contract, or to appropriate only a part of the employee’s working time for project management [10]. The form of the contract is closely related to the corpo-rate culture and the used form of the employment in company [11].When selecting a PM, it is possible to make use of a number of HR tools to evaluate job applicants, e.g. solving case studies, the Big 5Model (extroversion, neuroticism, tolerance, conscientiousness, openness to-wards experience), tests of intelligence, social intelli-gence, or emotional intelligence. It is possible to apply projective tests in the form of association, construction, completion, or expressive techniques, scaling, an integ-rity test, a set of Assessment Centre selection methods of the, camera tests, or verification of soft skills [12].RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe research was implemented on the basis of litera-ture review, which included analysis of professional journals, books and conference papers, documents of the appropriate government institutions and profession-al associations in the area of project management and HR management.The literature review was followed by a quantitative survey among metallurgical companies operating in CZE and associated in sectoral organizations - Steel Federation, Inc. [13] and Association of Foundries of the Czech Republic [14]. The survey aimed to identify requirements relating to appointment of workers to the positions of PMs in practice. In January and February 2017, we addressed 23 representatives of HR depart-ments and obtained answers to 11questions of a struc-tured questionnaire through directed interviews with them. The respondents’ attitudes to the importance of the PM applicants’ skills were assessed using a seven-point scale 1-7 (1 = low importance, 7 = high impor-tance). The acquired data were subsequently processed in the statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics and ana-lyzed using descriptive analysis tools.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe obtained answers can be divided into two groups. In the first group, the respondents commented on qualification requirements, requirements concerning the applicants’ practice, and required general, profes-sional theoretical and practical skills, and soft skills of PMs. The second group of questions assessed proce-dures applied within the process of selecting PMs and making an employment contract.When choosing PMs, it is the candidate’s education and job experience what is most often considered as as-sessment criteria. The vast majority of the addressed respondents (91 %) preferred these criteria to language skills and certification in the area of project manage-ment. In the area of education, the most respondents (48 %) required university education of the bachelor type. In view of the scope of activity of metallurgical indus-try, it is understandable that 71 % of the respondents preferred technical specialization of the university course. Low utilization of certification in the area of project management as a criterion for selecting appli-cants for the positions of PMs is closely related to the low level of knowledge of these certifications. 75 % of the respondents state that they have not encountered these certifications yet. The respondents who already have some experience with certifications in the area of project management are familiar with the certifications PRINCE 2 and PMI (always 33 % of the respondents), and the IPMA certificate is known by 17 % of the re-spondents only. In addition to the above mentioned in-ternational standards of project management, another mentioned possible standard for verification of the ap-plicants’ knowledge was the international standard ISO 10006 10006 Quality management - Guidelines to qual-ity in project management and 21500 Guide on project management. For a half of the respondents (53 %), it is enough for the PM position, if an applicant has job ex-perience of up to 3 years long, and 27 % of the respond-ents prefer applicants with practical experience from more areas of business.The respondents assessed the importance of selected general, professional theoretical and practical skills when evaluating applicants. The list of assessed skills corresponded with the requirements specified in the da-tabase of the National System of Occupations for PMs [9], and it also took account of the list of technical, be-havioural and contextual competencies of PMs, compe-tencies defined by IPMA [7]. Table 1 shows the assessed skills in order from the most important ones to the least important ones in respective groups as seen by the re-spondent.The respondents see the most important general skills in analytical thinking and language capability of the native language, and very important skills in con-ceptual thinking, computer skills in the area of project management, language competence in English and driving licence.From the point of view of the respondents, the most important theoretical skill was knowledge of the area of quality and risk management in project management. This fact is connected with the area of business, metal-lurgical industry, and projects implemented in this area require intensive quality orientation, and also project implementation risks may have significant material im-pacts. In the area of professional practical skills, the most important skills are seen in those in the area of time, risk, quality, and resource management, those relating to team management, and those relating to project infor-mation and document management, i.e. areas of the ba-sic project specification (time, contents, and sources). The respondents also accentuate the skill of working with teams and knowledge and utilization of project 133J. KOSTALOVA et al.: THE REQUIRED COMPETENCIES OF PROJECT MANAGERS IN METALLURGICAL COMPANIES...METALURGIJA 57 (2018) 1-2, 131-134management information systems to support sharing in-formation and communication within a project.Self-reliance and capability of cooperation are con-sidered the most important soft skills of PM applicants. However, in view of the high values, it is possible to state that also other soft skills are considered by the re-spondents as very important.The second group of questions concerned areas re-lating to the process of selecting a PM. According to the respondents’ opinions, PMs are recruited both internal-ly (71  % of the respondents), and externally (43 % of the respondents prefer hiring a PM for an indefinite pe-riod of time, i.e. for more projects, 29 % of them prefer recruitment for a currently implemented project). The respondents expressed only a marginal interest in the possibility of covering a PM position through outsourc-ing to an advisory company or to an individual special-ist. The answers to this question then also correspond with the preferred form of entering into contracts with PMs, i.e. full-time contracts.Within the recruitment process, HR management specialists apply various methods to verify the appli-cants’ competence. They most often apply procedures verifying soft skills (67 % of the respondents), projec-tive tests in the form of association, construction, com-pletion, or expressive techniques (50 % of the respond-ents), social intelligence tests (42 % of the respondents), emotional and intelligence tests (25 % of the respond-ents), sets of Assessment centre selection methods, or an integrity test (identically 17 % of the respondents). 8 % of the respondents make use of the Big 5Model. They also take account of references and conduct standard-ized interviews.CONCLUSIONThe paper deals with the problems of project manage-ment and its authors aim to assess the PM position require-ments from the point of view of corporate management in the practice of metallurgical companies in CZE. When se-lecting employees for the PM position in metallurgical companies in CZ, the respondents most often require work-ers with a university degree, at least a bachelor degree with technical specialization. They prefer workers with at least minimal experience from the area of project management of up to 3 years. When assessing the applicants’ compe-tence, they prefer the following skills: analytical thinking, good knowledge of the native language and the English language, general knowledge in the area of quality and risk management, professional practical skills in the area of pro-ject management (project time, risk, quality, and resource management), teamwork, and project information and doc-umentation management. In the area of soft skills, they mainly prefer self-reliance and capability of cooperation. The conducted survey also implies that the PM recruitment process is mainly based on verification of soft skills, but also a number of other methods and procedures are applied. The most frequent form of industrial relations for project Table 1  Assessment of importance of general, professional theoretical and practical skills, and soft skills of applicants for the position of a project managerGeneral skills Mean MedianAnalytical thinking 6,4 7Language capability of the native language 6,2 7Conceptual thinking 6,0 6Computer capability in project management 6,0 6English language capability 5,6 6Driving licence 5,1 6Knowledge of corporate economics 5,2 5Knowledge of corporate management5,2 5Numerical capability – knowledge of practical mathematics4,9 5Basic legal knowledge in the extent civil and com-mercial law4,4 4Language capability in another foreign language 3,6 3Professional (theoretical) skillsQuality management in project management 5,6 6Risk management in project management 5,5 6Indicators of economic investment and project effi  ciency5,5 5Work motivation and effi  ciency evaluation in project management5,4 5Selection and deployment of workers in project teams5,3 5Financial planning and controlling 5,1 5Legal skills 4,3 4Professional (practical) skillsProject time framework management 6,0 6 Project team management 5,8 6 Project risk management 5,8 6 Project quality management 5,6 6 Project information and documentation manage-ment5,5 6 Project resource management 5,5 6 Project scope management 5,6 5Change management 5,4 5Project fi nancial management 5,3 5Project integration management 5,2 5Soft skills Self-reliance 6,4 7Cooperation (collaboration) 6,2 7Active approach 6,3 6Workload management, resistance 6,3 6Eff ective communication 6,2 6Problem solving 6,1 6Flexibility 6,0 6Leadership 6,0 6Information management 5,8 6Creativity 5,7 6Self-education 5,7 6Relationship-building 5,6 6Aff ecting others 5,5 5Self-presentation 5,5 5Emotional intelligence 5,3 5Social confi dence 4,9 5Used scale: 1-7 (1= low importance, 7= high importance)Source: Authors134J. KOSTALOVA et al.: THE REQUIRED COMPETENCIES OF PROJECT MANAGERS IN METALLURGICAL COMPANIES... METALURGIJA 57 (2018) 1-2, 131-134management staffing is a long-term contract for the PM po-sition, not only temporarily for a particular project, but also with a prospect of solving future projects. With respect to the low knowledge and utilization of certifications of any of the international project management standards, it is possi-ble to recommend metallurgical companies closer famil-iarization with these standards and their application in the area of assessment of applicants’ competencies not only when recruiting PMs, but also generally in the area of edu-cation of metallurgical company employees involved in project implementation.REFERENCES[1] J. Kostalova, L. Tetrevova, Application of Tools Affecting Organizational Aspects of Project Management – Recom-mendations for Practice of Metallurgical Companies. 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The required competencies of project managers in metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic

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