The roles and responsibilities of the project manager in joint ventures in the construction industry in Malta

Abstract

Construction projects are locally getting larger and more complex in nature with the result that a large amount of Joint Ventures are being formed through collaboration between local partners and / or foreign partners. The Project Manager is the leader of the Construction Joint Venture and is responsible for the overall success of delivering the project on time and within budget in a safe and professional manner. Since this role is a relatively new role in the local construction industry, with university qualified Project Managers only qualified in the last few years (apart from those who studied abroad) many questions regarding the roles and responsibilities of the Project Manager in the Joint Venture are not clearly defined. The aim of this dissertation is the study of the roles and the responsibilities of the Project Manager in Joint Ventures in the Construction Industry in Malta. Project Managers were interviewed to understand the differences between of a Project Manager working in a traditional one company set up whose standard roles consist of Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling, to a Project Manager working in the Joint Venture set up. Due to the fact that a very limited amount of information is available on Project Managers in Local Construction companies, interviews were carried out with Project Managers having different professional backgrounds from Project Managers to "Periti" to Construction Managers to Project Managers with University Degrees. The conclusion of this study was that an additional sixteen roles and responsibilities above the normal standard roles and responsibilities need to be carried out by the Project Manager in the Construction Joint Venture.