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1. Introduction
In our globalized, digitalized and transcultural context, more and more corporations are confronted with the challenge of hypercompetition. This hypercompetitive, rapid changing global market makes project management crucial for competitive advantage and success.
Success has become a major theme in the project management universe, receiving remarkable attention from both researchers and practitioners (Andersen et al., 2006; Belassi and Tukel, 1996; Baker et al., 1988; Camilleri, 2011; Ika, 2009; Steinfort et al., 2011).
At first, studies on project success emphasized two main lines of investigation: success criteria (Lim and Mohamed, 1999; Westerveld, 2003; Cserhati and Szabo, 2014) and critical success factors (Cleland and King, 1983; Pinto and Slevin, 1987; Pinto and Covin, 1989; Cooke-Davies, 2002; Ika, 2009; McLeod and Doolin, 2012; Serrador and Turner, 2015).
More recently, researchers investigated the impact of project managers on project success, with special focus on the relevance of their competencies (Dainty et al., 2005; Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008; Müller et al., 2012; Turner and Müller, 2005; Turner et al., 2009).
The concept of competency has been broad, elusive and diffuse for decades (Ahsan et al., 2013; Stevenson and Starkweather, 2010). However, the most widely accepted definition of competency is the combination of knowledge, skill and attitude (Baumotte et al., 2013, p. 39; Boyatzis, 1982; Crawford, 2005; Hanna et al., 2016; IPMA, 2006; Müller and Turner, 2010a, b; Orr et al., 2010; Sherman et al., 2007; Stevenson and Starkweather, 2010).
The competency-based approach dates back to the 1970s, when selection processes were longer based on job descriptions because of the fast-paced changes of the Knowledge Era (Baumotte et al., 2013, p. 108). The concept of competency became the solution to substitute the old fashion job descriptions – that were changing constantly – to another approach focused on people competencies (Hollenbeck et al., 2006).
McClelland (1973) was a pioneer in the field; he stated that a manager’s competencies could have direct impact on success, and his ideas later influenced other researchers and practitioners (Ahsan et al., 2013). The definition of competency has since been refined, especially by the Competency Leadership School, an earlier school that centered its approach in the concept of competency and united the different...