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The Evolution of Project
Management Communication
Page 1
Author: Bill Brantley
It is well known that 90% of a project manager’s job is communication. That is because
the project manager is the communication hub of the project (Mersino, 2007), sees the big
picture, and communicates regularly with stakeholders throughout an organization (Kliem,
2008). Good communication helps to make a project successful, and bad
communication is often the key factor in project failure. Because project
management communication is so vital to project management, I conducted a
research study to determine the current status of project management research.
My goal was to understand how project management communication has evolved
as projects become more complex.
The Research Study
I reviewed the business management and communication academic
journals. Starting with the three major project management research journals
(International Journal of Project Management, Project Management Journal,
and International Journal of Managing Projects in Business), I collected all
articles that had “communication” in the keywords or abstracts. I then
searched for the phrases “project management” and “communication” in the
general business management journals and the communication/mass media journals. My
literature review resulted in 333 articles reduced to 272 articles after removing duplicates and
non-peer-reviewed articles.
As I read the articles, I placed them into one of four categories:




Category Zero – No or little relevance to the research question. These mention
communication once or twice at most.
Category One – Firmly grounded in the functional communication model. No research in
project management communication other than referencing the functional
communication model.
Category Two – Applied a contemporary research technique, method, or perspective to
the functional communication model but the purpose was confined to exploring aspects
of the functional communication model.
Category Three – Introduced a novel project management communication model or
critical perspective on project management communication not based on the functional
communication model.
I was especially interested in the functional model of communication as that seemed to be
the universal communication model among project management experts and the Project
Management Institute. Developed in the 1950s, the functional model of communication is also
© 2016 PMO Strategies
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known as the “Source-Message-Channel-Receiver” (SMCR) model. According to this model,
communication is essentially the transmission of messages between senders and receivers. In
the communication theory field, researchers have moved beyond the SMCR model. I wanted to
see if project management communication field had incorporated the newest communication
theories.
The Results
Nearly half (43%) of the 272 articles fell into Category Zero. These articles mentioned
communication but, offered no insights into project management communication research.
Forty-one percent of the articles referenced the SMCR communication model with some
articles suggesting ways of improving certain aspects of the SMCR model. When I split out the
analysis results between the three PM journals and the non-PM journals, there were more
Category Zero articles than Category One articles for the non-PM journals. For the PM journals,
there were more Category One articles than Category Zero articles.
Table 1. Count of Project Management Communication Articles by Category
Category
Number of Articles
Percentage of Total Articles
Zero
117
43%
One
112
41%
Two
33
12%
Three
10
4%
Chart 1. Number of Project Management Communication Articles by Category and Type of
Journal
PM Journals
Non-PM Journals
Category 0 – 32%
Category 0 – 48%
Category 1 – 47%
Category 1 – 38%
Category 2 – 13%
Category 2 – 12%
Category 3 – 8%
Category 3 – 2%
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Total – 87 Articles
Total – 185 Articles
Of the remaining 16% of the 272 articles, there were 33 articles in Category Two. These
articles applied new research methods to the SCMR model. This was because the authors of
these articles were attempting to expand the SCMR model to reflect the complexity of modern
projects possibly.
The last four percent of the articles were placed in Category Three. These articles were
published between 2005 and 2015 and represent a total break from the SMCR model. The new
project management communication models appear to argue that communication emerges in
the relationships between the people and tools involved in the environment of a particular
project.
The Future of Project Management Communication
When I presented this research at the University of Maryland’s 2016 Project
Management Symposium, I had some interesting reactions. First, the overall audience
consensus was that project management communication needs to reflect the complexity of
modern projects. Second, among the practicing project managers, they
noted that building relationships – especially coaching and mentoring
relationships – is a vital part of their work. And third, most surprising is
the suggestion I look into the sociology field to examine a growing body
of research on project management. In retrospect, I can see why
sociologists would examine project management teams as sociology is the
study of how groups interact with each other. I came to the session to
advocate sharing knowledge between the communication field and the
project management field. I should also examine how lessons from
sociology could improve project management.
This is only the beginning, and I have a long-term research agenda for
project management communication. My next area of research is to
study the assertion that project management teams are more engaged
than the general organizational team. I have some anecdotal evidence but, I have seen no
empirical research on project management team engagement.
© 2016 PMO Strategies
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Warmly,
Laura Barnard, PMP
Founder & CEO, PMO Strategies
© 2016 PMO Strategies
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© 2016 PMO Strategies