Description
Alpha project managers lead more successful projects, because they plan and communicate more. How can we train more project managers to be like them? This paper describes a study to measure students’ emotional intelligence in an undergraduate course in IT project management. The course incorporated active learning exercises in interpersonal communication and emotional intelligence. This study is the second in an emerging and multi-stage research effort that started with new curriculum development at one university last year. In this study, we deployed the curriculum intervention in a second university and with a second group of students at the first university. Additionally, a formal measure of soft skills was adopted from the literature for validation in this context before we launch a broader study. This study is intended to provide empirical and theoretical evidence to support pedagogical interventions to help train the next generation of emotionally intelligent alpha project managers.
Recommended Citation
Connolly, Amy J. and Rush, Daniel, "Developing a New Generation of Alpha Project Managers" (2017). AMCIS 2017 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2017/ITProjMgmt/Presentations/8
Developing a New Generation of Alpha Project Managers
Alpha project managers lead more successful projects, because they plan and communicate more. How can we train more project managers to be like them? This paper describes a study to measure students’ emotional intelligence in an undergraduate course in IT project management. The course incorporated active learning exercises in interpersonal communication and emotional intelligence. This study is the second in an emerging and multi-stage research effort that started with new curriculum development at one university last year. In this study, we deployed the curriculum intervention in a second university and with a second group of students at the first university. Additionally, a formal measure of soft skills was adopted from the literature for validation in this context before we launch a broader study. This study is intended to provide empirical and theoretical evidence to support pedagogical interventions to help train the next generation of emotionally intelligent alpha project managers.