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Article
Introduction
The nature of work is changing, and with it, the demand for
project managers is increasing. The practice of project man-
agement has been proven in the traditional project-based
industries, such as aerospace and information technology
(IT), and the demand is growing in the energy, health care,
constructions, and finance sectors (Hodgson & Cicmil, 2006;
Project Management Institute [PMI], 2014, n.d.). It is pro-
jected that between the years 2010 and 2020, “15.7 million
new project management roles will be added globally across
seven project intensive industries . . . Manufacturing,
Business Services, Finance & Insurance, Oil & Gas,
Information Services, Constructions, and Utilities” (PMI,
2013, p. 2).
In 1971, in his editorial “The Accidental Profession,” J.
Gordon Davis begins by asking how PMI members prepared
for the profession? He further asked, “How many of us could
or would employ newly-graduated individuals in positions
relating to the design, development, and operation of project
management systems” (Davis, 1971, p. 10)? This work was
followed by Pinto and Kharbanda (1995) and others who
wrote about the accidental profession. As an accidental pro-
fession, the literature (Hauschildt, 2000; Sauer, Li, &
Johnston, 2001) indicated that management selects project
managers because they have potential as a project manager
or a technical specialty. Rarely are project managers hired for
their role. Furthermore, Darrell, Baccarini, and Love (2010)
discussed what little preparation and training project manag-
ers get for their job, contributing to the notion of project
management as an accidental profession. Although research
has investigated the role of the accidental profession, there is
still work to be done. The accidental project manager is rel-
evant today requiring more study and understanding in a
variety of industries and organizations (Darrell et al., 2010).
Therefore, the current research study endeavors to find out
where project managers come from and how they got into the
role. This is accomplished by interviewing 87 project man-
agers about what types of career experiences led them to
project management.
Literature Review
As discussed by Pinto and Kharbanda (1995), project man-
agers occupy a precarious situation in which they possess
little authority and operate outside of the traditional hierar-
chy. In a traditional expected career path, a project manager
572098SGOXXX10.1177/2158244015572098SAGE OpenRichardson et al.
research-article2015
1Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA
Corresponding Author:
Matthew P. Earnhardt, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 600 South
Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL 32114, USA.
Email: earnharm@erau.edu
Is Project Management Still an Accidental
Profession? A Qualitative Study of Career
Trajectory
Tracey M. Richardson1, Matthew P. Earnhardt1,
and Jim W. Marion1
Abstract
In this study, the authors used qualitative techniques to look for reoccurring themes related to 87 project managers’
responses to interview questions associated with entry into the field of project management and career progression. The
study found that despite the efforts of higher education, professional associations, and their professional development and
certifications, the project management remains a destination by accident. Professional project managers do not intend to
be project managers but “fall into” the profession. This study provides a conceptual framework for project manager career
trajectory that has implications for project management training and mentoring and contributes to the growing literature on
the accidental profession.
Keywords
project manager career progression, project manager success factors, project manager career path framework
2 SAGE Open
acquires skills and knowledge to manage projects through a
combination of skills and experiences (Darrell et al., 2010).
But Darrell et al. (2010) commented that many project man-
agers who fall outside of traditional project management
industries enter the profession by accident. In other words,
these project managers enter the profession without formal
training. Often, project managers are picked because of tech-
nical knowledge (Ranf, 2011), but they require other skills
and knowledge as well.
Project Manager Skills and Knowledge
Many studies have been published about the characteristics,
skills, and competencies of the serving project manager. In a
study of IT project managers, necessary skills such as (a)
personal integrity, (b) team development, (c) client manage-
ment, (d) planning and control, and (e) problem solving
were found to be a requirement for success (Napier, Keil, &
Tan, 2007). That study also categorizes IT project manager
archetypes, including (a) general manager, (b) problem
solver, (c) client representative, and (d) balanced manager.
The authors concluded by identifying several constructs
related to the aforementioned skills category, including con-
structs such as (a) leadership, (b) team building, (c) com-
munication, (d) quality focus, and (e) managing complexity
among others.
The requirements for IT project manager executives were
studied and reveal six critical core competencies necessary
for project managers, including (a) leadership, (b) communi-
cation, (c) verbal and written skills, (d) attitude, (e) the abil-
ity to deal with ambiguity, and (f) change (Stevenson &
Starkweather, 2009). These findings are consistent with
Napier et al.’s (2007) study and point to a preference toward
soft skills of project managers.
In the ranking of the most critical skills for IT project
managers, Keil, Lee, and Deng (2013) found a slightly dif-
ferent skill set with 19 critical skills necessary for project
managers. Similar to the aforementioned studies, leader-
ship, communication, team building, and quality were
important. Additional skills such as scope management and
listening were seen as critical skills as well (among others).
Interestingly, in follow-up interviews, leadership, verbal
communication, scope management, listening, and project
planning were seen as the top five skills for project
managers.
In an article examining the role of project managers in
health care, the authors concluded that a skilled project man-
ager would address the scope, risks, procurement, quality,
and communication with the project (Hernandez, Aderton, &
Eidem, 2011). Project manager collaboration skills with all
stakeholders was also found as important. More recently, in
a study across multiple sectors (health, technology, entertain-
ment, military, etc.), research showed that several competen-
cies (and leadership styles) are needed depending upon the
project outcomes, and to be effective, a project manager
must be able to shift his or her style and competencies to
match the project needs (Galvin, Gibbs, Sullivan, & Williams,
2014). The authors further recommended that project manag-
ers needed to use critical thinking skills and adapt to the
ever-changing environment.
In another study, results suggested that multiple-project
managers possessed unique competencies, including (a)
organizational experience, (b) interdependency manage-
ment, (c) multitasking, (d) simultaneous team management,
and (e) management of interproject processes (Patanakul &
Milosevic, 2007). This research acknowledged that multiple-
project managers need to have both individual technical
competencies and competencies that can stimulate cross col-
laboration across multiple projects simultaneously. The top
critical competencies for multiple-project managers were
monitoring (administrative), problem solving (interper-
sonal), business sense (business/strategic), and knowledge of
product applications (technical). Holzle (2010) outlined sev-
eral components to the project manager’s competency pro-
file, including (a) methods and expertise, (b) problem-solving
skills, (c) cooperation and team skills, (d) communication
skills, and (d) intercultural competence.
Expertise and knowledge transfer are critical to the suc-
cess of practicing project management and the organizations
within which project managers work (Demartini & Paoloni,
2011). Petter and Randolph (2009) discussed how knowl-
edge is a combination of experiences, values, insights, and
information. They went on to say that the context is impor-
tant in identification and transfer of knowledge in organiza-
tions. Brown, Adams, and Amjad (2007) discussed that
project managers’ knowledge and experience are important
determinates in project outcomes. They further explained
that a combination of knowledge and experience would
improve project manager performance. Furthermore, Yasin
(2000) found that the use of communication exceeded proj-
ect manager’s knowledge, indicating that communication
needs to be an area of emphasis. Finally, Krane, Olsson, and
Rolstadas (2012) found that owners of a project need to rely
on and trust the project manager and his or her knowledge
because, often, the project manager has more knowledge of
the particular project.
Organizational Support for the Project Manager
Organizational support is critical, as often, project manag-
ers have found much success in a technical field but are not
fully aware of the management skills that are necessary for
project success (Darrell et al., 2010; Pinto & Kharbanda,
1995). Ranf (2011) found that originally engineers were
assigned project manager roles because of their technical
knowledge but that emphasis has shifted, as project manag-
ers must have knowledge of business operations as well.
Often, project managers are thrown into an organization
without the support from an organization (Darrell et al.,
2010). This lack of human resource planning makes it
Richardson et al. 3
difficult to prepare our future project managers for the
important skills, knowledge, and competencies that are
critical for their success.
Project manager support may be tied to project success,
and it is important to prevent project managers from per-
forming in a vacuum (Larsen & Gobeli, 1989). Holzle (2010)
found the importance of a project manager to be aligned to
appropriate career path levels. Holzle further contended that
an organization needs to engage and provide continuity for
project managers like they would any other career field in
their organization. Furthermore, projects need to be classi-
fied, and that needs to be factored into the project manager’s
career path as well. The project manager must receive sup-
port from the organization and have a definition of roles.
Without an organizational support structure that defines the
project manager’s roles and responsibilities, projects would
lack functional manager support (Anantatmula, 2010). The
organization needs to support the project manager, so that
every member of the chain of command will support the
project manager as well. Anantatmula (2010) observed that
the project manager has a role in supporting functional man-
agers, but they need management support as well for project
success.
Project success was more likely when related to a clearly
defined mission, a cohesive team and management support
(Larsen & Gobeli, 1989). Darrell et al. (2010) discussed
that as one helps project managers and provides them with
the requisite organizational support, this can be accom-
plished through a wide range of supportive mechanisms
that organizations can implement. The organization can
take other steps to assist project managers. Some of these
steps are through a strong organizational culture and
leadership(Darrell et al., 2010). A mature project manage-
ment program is also important. Organizations need to
engage in strategic staffing, have a strong training program,
and have team autonomy on projects to improve team effec-
tiveness and decision making (Drouin & Bourgault, 2013).
Despite these recommendations, Drouin and Bourgault
urge for more empirical studies of organizational support,
as the subject has not received much attention in the litera-
ture. It is with this theoretical framework that the current
study was undertaken.
Method
The methodological approach chosen for the present study is
qualitative with the main objectives being to investigate
project managers and to understand the phenomena about
where project managers came from and how they arrived at
the role. This was accomplished by interviewing project
managers about what types of career experiences led them to
project management and then analyzing the participants’ sto-
ries. Through this process, the researcher may take an active
role and “restory” the stories into a framework that makes
sense (Creswell, 2013). Students in a graduate project man-
agement degree program were assigned to interview a pro-
fessional project manager and pose questions about
associated career experiences and career progression. A total
of 87 project managers, from a variety of U.S.-based and
international organizations, were interviewed. The students
posted the interview summaries into an online learning man-
agement system for evaluation and comment following a
topical protocol delineated in Table 1.
The interviews yielded nearly 130 pages of interview
summary data from project managers discussing career
experiences. Keeping with qualitative tradition, after con-
ducting the interviews and cleansing the data, the authors
read all the interviews and took note of the emerging themes
related to the following research question:
Research Question 1: Where do project manager come
from and how did they get there?
Once all of the interviews were read in this first review of
the data, the next step was data entry into the qualitative
software.
Qualitative coding software, nVivo, is a software that aids
with the organization and analysis of unstructured data. The
illustration below depicts the coding process (QSR
International, 2014, p. 6). Each interview was imported inde-
pendently, and the list of emergent themes is loaded as cate-
gories, or nodes, reflected as “Import” and “Explore” below.
The “Code” process involves reviewing of each individual
interview and then linking the individual comments from the
interview to themes. This begins a cataloging process of the
data.
Further analysis was conducted through keyword queries
to ensure that all instances of specific keyword or phrase
were reviewed and coded, “Query.” Any item that was ini-
tially missed was included and the coding was complete.
Then, themes were collected and the frequency that each
theme appeared was documented. A word frequency analysis
was performed against each segment of coded text to gain an
understanding of how closely each identified theme was
related to others in terms of common words and expressions,
allowing the authors to “Reflect” as to the implication.
Relationships were established, and then themes were classi-
fied into groups. Finally, the conceptual framework was built
up from the themes, classifications, and relationship. This
“Visualize” step allows this study’s 87 interview results to be
a representation of career trajectory.
Table 1. Topical Protocol.
Question
How did he or she get started in the field?
How has his or her career progressed?
4 SAGE Open
Limitations
Although this study offers a view of project managers as an
accidental profession, the present study is not without limita-
tions. One limitation to qualitative research is high internal
validity and low external validity. The researchers attempted
to mitigate this limitation through a high sample size (n =
87). Furthermore, despite that the interviews were collected
from graduate students in multiple different sections of a
project management fundamentals course with different pro-
fessors, the results were consistent regardless of professor or
interviewer. The study had low external validity due to the
lack of interviewer training and the lack of contact between
the authors and the interviewees. Another limitation is the
lack of demographic information collected. This presents a
problem with generalizing the data with regard to his or her
industry, years of experience, and if he or she was a certified
project management professional. Despite the limitations,
several conclusions applicable to the project manager were
obtained and discussed above.
Analysis
In this analysis, two themes observed from “Project Manager
Insights: An Analysis of Career Progression” (Marion,
Richardson, & Earnhardt, 2014) were further analyzed to
better understand the following:
1. the career trajectory of project managers, and
2. interview summary comments associated with the
ongoing observation that project management career
paths are likely to be unintentional or evolutionary in
nature.
The codes selected for further analysis are illustrated in
Table 2.
These two underlying themes appeared in 78 of the total
87 interview summaries, and 50 instances of each theme
were coded. Leveraging nVivo’s sorting feature, the two
major themes were examined a second time, and a set of sub-
themes emerged. The sub-themes are illustrated in Table 3.
The sub-themes illustrate a repeatedly occurring pattern
observed throughout the analyzed interview summaries. This
pattern reveals an evolutionary career trajectory in project
management that is often unintended by the individual, and
is realized as the employee builds on career disciplines over
time. The interview summaries often describe an increasing
individual influence in the organization as skills mature,
more frequent cross-functional interactions occur, and coor-
dination increases. Brief descriptions of each sub-theme,
along with significant interview summary excerpts, provide
support for this understanding of the “typical” project man-
agement career trajectory.
Maturing Skills and Interaction (47 Sources [54%
or Respondents] / 54 References)
The project manager’s evolution appears to mirror senior
functional manager or general manager career paths. The
project manager, as reflected in the interview summary
excerpts, begins with a focus on a specific technical disci-
pline, but over time encounters opportunities to develop
management skills and to interact with other disciplines in
the organization:
The way that I got started in this field was through my
experiences in other positions I have had. I have been a scheduler,
a customer service agent and lead, a shipping specialist, a supply
specialist and lead . . . an inventory manager, a master scheduler,
a project manager, a portfolio manager, and now a program
manager.
There is no set career path for becoming a project manager,
advancement generally occurs incrementally, and project
management responsibilities expand as you move up the
organization’s hierarchy.
In each of these interview summaries, it is clear that there
is no single-project management career path. Rather, the
project management role seems to emerge from employee
experiences in different roles within the company over a
period of years. The more knowledge and experience gained,
the more likely it appears that the employee will be assigned
an integrative role such as project management that touches
all functional groups.
Evolution (39 Sources [45% or Respondents] /
45 References)
As is observed from the interview summary excerpts,
individuals are not likely to be assigned project
Table 2. Original Themes.
Name Sources (n = 87) References
Worked the way up the ranks 68 78
Unintentional career field 46 50
Table 3. Sub-Themes.
Name Sources References
Maturing skills and interaction 47 54
Evolution 39 45
Focus on technical discipline 25 26
Wide interaction and responsibility 19 21
Preparation meets opportunity 15 17
Discovery 13 18
Mistake 5 5
Richardson et al. 5
management positions from “day one,” rather they appear
to arrive at the position after a period of growth and
development:
He said that he sort of fell into the area of project management
as a natural progression along his career path and found it to be
a very challenging and rewarding work experience.
Although I assumed a program management position a few
years ago on the. . . . program, my start into that field began
years before through a series of career opportunities and
experience that enabled me to lead projects of increasing
intensity and responsibility.
The theme of evolution illustrates how project manage-
ment tends to be an emergent role rather than one that is
assigned as a result of a course of study or training. Typical
of the process of evolution, the arrival at the end result was
not planned but created by trial and error and circumstance.
Focus on Technical Discipline (25 Sources [29%
or Respondents] / 26 References)
In many observed interview summary excerpts, the project
managers of today were the technical specialists of
yesterday.
He got started in his current field when he was working
operations as an engineer
When I received my undergraduate degree . . . I started doing
software development.
He got started in the field working for the same company in
development and testing parts for commercial aircraft ventilation
systems.
As can be seen in this theme, many project managers
begin their respective careers as technical specialists. Those
with soft skills in addition to technical skills are observed to
eventually gravitate toward management positions. Given
that many technical disciplines tend to produce unique deliv-
erables, project management positions may well be natural
management destinations for such science, technology, engi-
neering, and math professionals.
Wide Interaction and Responsibility (19 Sources
[22% or Respondents] / 21 References)
In some observed instances, the evolutionary process contin-
ues beyond the level of project manager and results in the
attainment of significant additional responsibility. This sug-
gests that the evolutionary process observed in the interview
summaries applies equally well to program managers and
project executives.
With many people who seek promotions he did the jobs required
to climb the corporate ladder and now finds him in charge of the
entire process.
My career has progressed steadily from being put in charge of
small products, such as relocating a specific area of an aircraft
engine production facility to a new location, to acting as the
single point of contact for the annual fundraising efforts of a
1,200 person organization. . . .
This theme illustrates that career experience associated
with an increasing scope and span of control may provide a
career trajectory toward project leadership opportunities. An
increased span of control is inherently cross-functional in
nature and is therefore consistent with the organizational
structure of projects.
Preparation Meets Opportunity (15 Sources
[17% or Respondents] / 17 References)
Some project managers interviewed experienced a more
rapid progression by seeking out opportunities either through
volunteering or taking the opportunity to demonstrate leader-
ship capability:
Through the honing of skills by experience and volunteering for
job task opportunities, does recognition by hiring managers
arrive.
Once I was working for that company as a SME (subject matter
expert) I got pushed to a project lead within two months due to
my military background and leadership ability.
As evidenced by interview excerpts associated with this
theme, employees who find themselves prepared by a lengthy
career experience may one day encounter an opportunity to
move into the realm of the project manager. This positive result
could be said to be a combination of both the natural experi-
ence developed as a career evolves, and the chance encounter
with an opportunity to take on a more extensive role.
Discovery (13 Sources [15% or Respondents] /
18 References)
Some successful project managers stated that they were
unaware of project management as a profession until later in
his or her career: “ . . . It was then, that she discovered exactly
what this new management style was a career field called
project management.” “I didn’t think of project management
at the time but now I know it was a project.”
It is of interest to observe that some of today’s project
managers revealed a tendency to be unaware of the project
management profession prior to taking on the role. This is
because project management lacks professional status and
the lack of focus on a specific career goal is consistent with
6 SAGE Open
the evolutionary nature of the project management career
path observed in the study.
Mistake (Five Sources [6% or Respondents] / Five
References)
The fact that the project management profession can be a
career path that emerges, rather than one that is specifically
chosen by the employee, is highlighted by these revealing
comments. Some project managers who were interviewed
characterized the career as an “accident” or a “mistake”: “In
the mid 90’s, Donna said she sorta [sic] fell into her career by
accident; really out of necessity.” “. . . Well thank you for
asking. I got started in Project Management by mistake . . .”
The “accidental profession” phenomenon observed in the
interviews appears to be an artifact of the willingness of
some individuals to take on more responsibility and leader-
ship. Those who do and become effective in the role are
observed to eventually become project managers.
Conceptual Framework
An inductive approach to developing theory begins with the
data (interviews), seeks patterns in the data (themes), and
then seeks to build up a larger picture of the phenomena
under study (conceptual framework; Creswell, 2013). When
the themes are put in logical order based on career progres-
sion, we arrive at the following conceptual framework:
Figure 1 represents a typical career trajectory as repre-
sented by this study’s 87 interviewees. On the left side of the
diagram, “organizational roles” are depicted in bold. They
begin at the bottom, suggesting the beginning of a career, as
a discipline specialist. The interview results suggest that as
the discipline specialist becomes proficient, volunteers for
additional responsibility, and demonstrates potential, he or
she evolves into the role of supervisor or junior project man-
ager. It is at this point in one’s career that our interview sub-
jects describe entry into project management roles by
accident, through discovering a better understanding of how
the organization accomplishes work cross functionally. The
progression to a project manager role, and later a senior proj-
ect manager or program manager, is an evolutionary process.
As individuals are proven communicators and collaborators,
these individuals describe successful project management
experiences.
On the right side of the diagram, this continuum illustrates
individual awareness of project management as a practice
and later as a profession. Participants in this study describe
“doing” project management and becoming aware of project
management certification. Seeking the project management
professional certification often became a byproduct of the
individual’s career path evolving into project management
roles and the certification provided external professional
credibility.
The center portion of the diagram represents the individu-
als’ personal growth and development over time, building a
Figure 1. Project manager career path conceptual framework.
Richardson et al. 7
career. Starting at the bottom, an entry into the job market
expects a focus on a discipline. An individual is expected to
become proficient at “the job,” which could require little to
no interaction with the other parts of the organization. As
time passes and proficiency increases, the individual skill set
matures. He or she better understands the nature of how work
is accomplished and the requirement for communications
and collaboration. Moving up the professional development
line, an individual has proven himself or herself as a techni-
cal specialist, is successful in interorganization coordination,
and may be serving in a managerial capacity. The top of the
professional development timeline reflects full immersion in
the organization and is recognized as a subject matter expert
who has a broad understanding of the organization’s enter-
prise wide operations and has developed a strong leadership
skill set.
Figure 2 presents the project manager career path con-
ceptual framework in the organizational context. Under the
heading “Functional Organization,” the columns represent
the different functional areas, such as operations, production,
marketing, and human resources. As described above, the
project manager career path conceptual framework has three
distinct concepts represented: (a) organizational roles, (b)
personal development, and (c) project management aware-
ness. Here, we see those three concepts embedded in the con-
text of a functional organization. In the center, the personal
development process illustrates a career progression from
the bottom to the top, just as described above. To the right is
the project management awareness spectrum which at the
bottom is colored red, indicating minimal or non-existent
project management awareness. The color code changes
from orange to yellow as an individual becomes more aware
of project management practices and then transitions to
green, suggesting that an individual is fully immersed as a
project manager or a possible program manager. Up at the
top of Figure 2, “organizational roles” are identified.
The left hand of the diagram represents a typical func-
tional organization. The column furthest to the right is where
the project manager resides. It is evident from this that as the
individual’s skill set increases, and the communication and
collaboration across functional areas, he or she becomes
more aware of project management practices, our interview
participants describe that intersection is where project man-
agers succeed. As the communication and collaboration span
the entire organization, this may be a fully qualified project
manager who may be certified. A fully immersed project
manager, who may be certified, is mature in his or her techni-
cal discipline, very aware of the project management
principles.
Discussion
The themes that emerge from the interview summaries illus-
trate a career path that does not typically begin with the goal
of becoming a project manager, but rather evolves over time
as experience builds. The pattern is validated by selected
Figure 2. Project manager career path conceptual framework in the organizational context.
8 SAGE Open
excerpts from the interview summaries, and the number of
instances that each theme is observed. For example, nearly
70% of all instances of coded themes occur in the top three
noted themes of “maturing skills and interaction,” “evolu-
tion,” and “focus on technical discipline.”
This study suggests that what J. Gordon Davis asked in
1971 may still need addressing the following: Are we still
depending on accidental education of our project managers?
What is the role of PMI? What is the role of the organization?
(Davis, 1971). Higher education seems to be providing
ample opportunities. There are more than 900 project man-
agement degrees being offered by more than 450 colleges
and institutions globally (Higham, 2014). The degrees are at
the bachelor, master, and doctoral levels residing in a variety
of university disciplines: engineering, business, health care,
and interdisciplinary studies to name a few. There is a sig-
nificant growth compared with 1994 when there were only
11 formal project management degrees, and most were in the
construction discipline (Higham, 2014).
When considering the role of the project management
professional organizations, J. Rodney Turner (1999)
described the support that should be expected:
1. Define the knowledge upon which the profession is based
2. Contribute to the further development of that knowledge
3. Define the minimum knowledge and competence in its use
required to be a member of the profession
4. Aid in the continuing professional development of members
of the profession
5. Welcome potential new entrants to the profession, and aid in
the development in the profession
6. Assess individuals to determine whether they have achieved
the required minimum levels of knowledge and competence to
be professionals
7. Certify individuals so that the public at large can be assured of
their competence to practice as professional (p. 41).
As evidenced by the growth in membership of the PMI, the
International Project Management Association, the Association
of Project Management, and others; the professional develop-
ment; and the multiple certifications offered by each, it appears
that the professional institutions are striving to solidify the
profession. In 2006, Morris, Crawford, Hodgson, Shepherd,
and Thomas (2006) likened the project management profes-
sion to occupations described as “semi-professions,” “com-
mercialized professions,” and “emerging professions.” The
article further describes the importance of the Body of
Knowledge in formalizing the profession. But, they caution,
“If we rely on the project management associations to tell the
academics what to think and teach, instead of having research
test the concepts theoretically and the issues practically, we get
into self-fulfilling prophecies” (Morris et al., 2006, p. 719).
Another interesting finding is that project managers inter-
viewed began their project management careers with a strong
technical background as a discipline specialist. The partici-
pants commented as they progressed in their careers; they
developed management skill sets. This finds congruence
with the literature review that found project managers need
strong soft skills (such as communication and critical think-
ing) in addition to technical skills. Specifically, the partici-
pants noted that the need for communication, collaboration,
and leadership has necessary skills for the project manager.
These data continue to inform the growing literature on proj-
ect manager competencies.
This study analyzed 87 interviews of practicing project
managers and the answers to questions about entry into the
field and career progression. What this study found is that
despite the efforts of higher education to provide a formal
path to the profession, despite the very popular professional
associations and their professional development and certifi-
cations, that project management still is a destination by
accident.
Future Research
First, the current study offers a conceptual framework for
project manager career paths. Although the study confirms
earlier work (Davis, 1971), there is a need for additional
studies, particularly related to the proposed framework
(Darrell et al., 2010). The proposed framework infers that the
career path for project managers remains an informal process
in many companies. The data indicate that project managers
arrive at their role through experience. Future studies can
confirm the proposed framework and further test the findings
proposed in the current research study. In addition, future
studies could modify or add to the conceptual framework
outlined in this study. Another research avenue for future
studies could include demographic data and interview proj-
ect managers in different countries and cultures to see
whether the results are consistent globally. Is project man-
agement an accidental profession globally? This would be an
interesting question to answer. The question of project man-
ager career progression could be investigated on a global
scale with multiple cultures and specific industries. Finally,
future studies could investigate the role of leadership style in
project manager success. For example, does a servant leader
have more project success than a transactional leader? Does
a project manager’s leadership style even matter in project
execution? This could be an interesting research avenue for
future project management research.
Conclusion
The present study builds on Davis’s (1971) challenge to the
profession and subsequent research describing the accidental
Richardson et al. 9
profession, investigating the career progression of project
managers. The research contributes to the topic of career pro-
gression by offering a conceptual framework providing
insight into project managers’ career progression. The study
found that despite the efforts of higher education to provide
a formal path to the profession, regardless of the very popu-
lar professional associations and their professional develop-
ment and certifications, project management remains a
destination by accident and that professional project manag-
ers do not intend to be project managers but “fall into” the
profession. This has implications for project management
training and mentoring in the future and contributes to the
growing literature on the accidental profession.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research and/or
authorship of this article.
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Author Biographies
Dr. Tracey M. Richardson is an assistant professor for Embry-
Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide. Prior to joining
Embry-Riddle, Richardson had a 20-year career as an aircraft main-
tenance officer for the United States Air Force. Dr. Richardson has
an EdD in Organizational Leadership from Argosy University and-
holds both the PMP® and PMI-RMP® certifications from PMI.
Dr. Matthew P. Earnhardt is an assistant professor with Embry-
Riddle Aeronautical University–Worldwide. Prior to joining
Embry-Riddle, Earnhardt taught at several universities and a career
with the United States military and Lockheed Martin Corporation.
He holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership with a Global
Leadership Emphasis from Regent University.
Dr. Jim W. Marion is an assistant professor with Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University–Worldwide. where serves as the Chair of
the MS in Engineering Management program. His experience
includes multiple product launches in the US, Europe, and Asia,
and significant experience with Japanese companies. Dr. Marion
has a PhD in Organization and Management from Capella
University and holds thePMP® certification
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