Empathic Ability as a Driver for Project Management

Abstract

Empathy is receiving increasing attention as it can contribute to the collaboration and connectedness required for today's global challenges. A similar trend reveals itself at the scale of project management, given the change from technological to integration-driven challenges in projects. The necessary integrated approach affects the key competencies sought in project team participants. Since empathy enhances one's feeling for and understanding of the project participants’ interests, it could support the integration assignment. Therefore, focusing on the Dutch civil engineering industry, this study investigated whether the project team's empathic ability drives project performance. The results suggest a positive correlation between the team's empathic abilities and performance. Additionally, the study provides insights into the industry's current level of empathic ability, prompting the conclusion that there is room to improve performance by increasing the project teams’ empathic abilities.