Work package leader - A link between Line Organisation and Product Development Projects in an R&D Environment

The objective for this study was to determine how the project management responsibilities inside the research & development (R&D) environment should be assigned and how to choose suitable persons to strengthen the cooperation between product development projects and the line organization. In the environment of technically talented professionals the technical capabilities are usually strong but according to previous studies, personality traits for R&D project management are as well found to be increasingly significant. Survey data was collected through a structured web-based questionnaire with 238 respondents within an R&D organization. The questions from previous study were selected to measure the traits of R&D personnel. By using exploratory factor analysis, the responses were loaded as trait factors, which were analysed by comparing the means of trait factors between the different professions. The results of the study confirmed the similar outcome compared to previous research on the desirable traits of an R&D project manager. The strongest correspondence with results in a previous study was found among project managers and such managers who already are contributing in project management in various assistive roles. The means evaluated in almost all trait factors were higher than among experts and engineers. As implications of the findings, new trait factors were created to describe the desirable traits in R&D project management roles. This study proved that such traits are usable in defining the profile of personnel in an R&D environment. According to the results recommendations can be offered on how to choose the most suitable key persons concerning project management duties in an R&D environment