PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC: IS IT TIME FOR INNOVATION?

Purpose: The importance of project management has hastily increased and its rapid development and tendency towards innovation made it one of the key components of the organizations' performance. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic study of the current situation and practices in the field of project management in the Czech Republic. Three areas of project management are closely studied: stakeholders' main demands and requests, main characteristics of project management and level of use of the project management methods. Methodology: The study consists of the analysis of primary and secondary data. The cross-sectional online survey comprising of 3 parts was conducted in 2016 in Czech Republic and yielded 118 usable responses. Furthermore, the results of the author's survey were compared with the results of similar surveys from the last 5 years. Kruskal-Wallis test has been used to support the claims. Findings: The survey showed that working in project management is arduous. There is an increase in the level of use of basic project management methods. Moreover, there is a link between the definition of successful project and project success factors and stakeholders' demands of the projects. Finally, there are important empirical insights showing broader implementation of project management, although no essential overall progress was noted in the project management in the last 5 years. Thus, project management is a file for innovation. Research: This study indicates the necessity of innovation such as development of the basic framework for the project governance approaches as well as increase in the use of available project management methods. Future research should focus on analysis of the overall status of project governance approaches as well as on the issues of determination of project scope and risk management within projects. Value: This study looks at the project management from the multi-factor perspective and addresses the current situation indicating innovative directions of development as well as broader application of project management methods, which are not much researched in the region.