The human factor in sustainable project management

The research project reported in this chapter explored the factors that stimulate project managers to consider sustainability. The project consisted of three phases: exploration, confirmation and interpretation, and four studies. In the exploration phase, three distinct stimulus patterns of project managers were identified: “Intrinsically motivated”, “Task driven” and “Pragmatic”. In the confirmation phase, a second explorative study was performed in a different geographical region. The findings of this study confirmed the identified patterns to a large extent. In the interpretation phase, two quantitative studies were performed to create a more in depth understanding of the patterns. These studies found that, across industries and project types, the prevalent pattern is “Intrinsically motivated”. Sustainability is most of all a personal trait of the project manager. The findings of the studies contribute to the emerging knowledge on sustainable project management and specifically to the understanding of stimulus patterns of project managers.