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There is a need for project management practitioners to adapt and thrive in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) project-based workplaces. In this paper, the linkage between work readiness and career resilience is developed, presenting both concepts as critical for effective strategic responses and adaptation to the changing labor market in organizations.

The resource-based view (RBV) and integrated dynamic capabilities (IDCs) are the theoretical lenses that are used to link the concepts of work readiness and career resilience across the individual and organizational levels.

A framework and model are proposed to establish a holistic understanding of catalysts for addressing the VUCA context that organizations face. The proposed conceptual linkage adds a chronological dimension to the formation of the interrelated dynamic capabilities during the early career phase of project management practitioners.

The contribution to the project management literature includes a theoretically driven conceptual framework that links two complementary concepts to address the career challenges faced by project managers. Work readiness is positioned as an enabler of career resilience and together they constitute vital attributes which foster talent retention in the current VUCA work environment.

Work readiness and career resilience are underexplored topics in the project management literature, both individually and in conjunction. Specifically, there is a research gap in view of linking these two concepts to present them as a catalyst for project management talent sustainability, and the proposed framework is an initial step in addressing these gaps.

The aim of this paper is to explore the support that project managers receive from construction project-based organisations (PBOs) in their early careers.

Fifty-seven semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with four key stakeholder groups including early career project managers (ECPMs) and employers from Australian construction PBOs, project management professional bodies, and university educators to ascertain (1) what organizations are currently doing and (2) what organizations can do better to support project managers in their early careers.

Thematic analysis revealed that construction PBOs' responsibilities to ECPMs entailed: (1) providing mentoring, (2) offering training, (3) collaborating with universities, (4) giving time and feedback and (5) assigning manageable workloads. However, the findings revealed inconsistencies in companies enacting these responsibilities.

This research is limited to the context of the Australian construction industry, yet the findings shed valuable insights into the current practices of construction PBOs in supporting ECPMs. From a strategic resource-based view perspective, ECPMs have the potential to serve as long-term valuable organizational resources. Failure to invest in new professional entrants constitutes an area of untapped competitive advantage.

Construction PBOs looking to better support their ECPMs may use the results of this research as a guide to tailor their early career professional development initiatives.

The study adopts a holistic, multi-vocal approach by interviewing four key stakeholder groups. The findings contribute new insights into the role of construction PBOs in supporting ECPMs and the implications this has on the sustainability of their project management talent pool.

There is a need for graduates who can quickly adjust and thrive within the current increasingly dynamic project-based workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to present the employers' perspectives on the work readiness of project management graduates entering the Australian construction industry.

To gain the industry's perspective, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants from 18 different construction companies that employ project management graduates.

Thematic analysis revealed that from the employers' perspective, work readiness constitutes (1) empathic communication, (2) passion and (3) technical construction knowledge. Graduates' areas of strength (e.g. application of technology) and weakness (e.g. responding to confrontational situations) were identified.

The findings provide valuable insights into employers' perspectives of the work readiness of project management graduates which can serve as feedback to universities to assist in aligning their educational programmes with industry needs.

While employers recognize that the responsibility for fostering work readiness should be shared between themselves and universities, this research highlights that currently adequate collaboration does not occur. This paper advocates for both universities and employers to be open to engaging in the conversation to enhance graduate work readiness.

No research to date has investigated the work readiness of project management graduates, nor whether their work readiness levels meet employers' requirements. This paper addresses this gap.

As the youngest generation – Generation Z (Gen Z) – enters the workplace, there is a growing interest in this cohort's career needs and expectations. This paper explores the under-researched topic of Gen Z project management (Gen Z PM) professionals. In addition to shedding light on the factors that positively affect Gen Z PM professionals' early career-development phase, this research aims to identify specific organization-led practices that can foster sustainable early PM careers and so achieve greater workforce sustainability.

Through the lens of the resource-based view (RBV), Gen Z PM professionals are considered critical resources that can help ensure workforce sustainability in project-based organizations (PBOs). Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 Gen Z PM professionals in Australia to explore the professionals' early career experiences and the organizational-support initiatives that facilitate positive experiences. The results were analyzed using thematic analysis.

The results revealed that most Gen Z PMs experienced many challenges and a lack of support during their early career phase: Gen Z value (1) mentoring, (2) time for training and development, (3) showing support and guidance, (4) understand skill-gaps and (5) reasonable workloads. Through catering to these needs, PBOs can ensure better career sustainability for their young Gen Z talent and, therefore, greater workforce sustainability for the project profession.

According to the career sustainability lens, PBOs play a significant role in ensuring that their valuable young PM talent are supported and retained in the profession. This research sheds light on what Gen Z PM professionals value in their early careers, which guided recommendations to better support this new generation of project professionals.

Resilience development during university can increase the likelihood of positive employment outcomes for project management graduates in what is known as a stressful profession where the prevalence of project failure, job insecurity, and burnout is high. However, a focus on student resilience in project management education is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by establishing a baseline profile of resilience for project management students, identifying priority areas of resilience development and exploring the relationship between resilience and well-being.

In total, 292 Australian students undertaking project management studies completed a survey comprising of the Resilience at University scale, the Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale and an item assessing sleep adequacy.

A resilience profile for undergraduate, postgraduate, male and female project management students was calculated. The resilience profile identified differences according to gender, and between undergraduate and postgraduate students. Mental well-being and adequate sleep were found to be significantly related to resilience.

Findings support the call for a greater emphasis on resilience development in the project management curriculum for undergraduates and postgraduates. One priority area likely to facilitate resilience is the ability to maintain perspective. As well as supporting academic achievement, it will assist graduates to navigate through complex, uncertain and challenging project environments.

This is the first known study of resilience for students undertaking project management studies in higher education.

The aim of this study is to broaden the understanding of the set of knowledge, skills, attributes and experience (KSAE) that teams should demonstrate and the necessary roles they need to play within the team in Relational Contracting (RC). This research seeks to answer three questions: first, what KSAEs are required in a team operating under RC, second, which of the identified KSAEs are more important to enable an integrated team to perform effectively and third, how do these required KSAEs correspond to the major role clusters identified in Belbin’s team role model?

In-depth interviews with 25 experts and key management representatives in infrastructure construction in Australia were conducted to enable detailed discussion of the research questions.

Sixteen behavioural traits and four knowledge and experience areas were identified. The findings highlight that in RC, team members and especially leaders and managers need to be competent in people-oriented roles, above all others.

This research mainly captured the perspectives of personnel working in state government infrastructure departments. Further research is recommended to explore the perceptions of employees in private construction companies.

By aligning the roles required for RC with the team role clusters of the Belbin’s team roles assessment tool, this study will be useful for identifying suitable members to form high-performance project teams.

The findings of this paper can inform government infrastructure organisations and construction companies as to which roles are more critical when selecting fit-for-purpose teams to successfully deliver large infrastructure projects procured under the RC method.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the talent challenges faced by hospitality organisations. This paper aims to propose a new concept – industry talent branding – which, is argued, offers industry stakeholders the opportunity to reduce such issues through working more collaboratively and strategically to magnify the pool in which individual organisations compete for talent.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework of industry talent branding, based on brand equity theory, signalling theory and the employer branding literature.

Industry talent branding opens a potentially new stream of research on how talent attraction and retention issues may be addressed. The authors propose that there is merit in moving beyond the organisational-level phenomenon of employer branding to industry talent branding through articulating a broader collaborative and strategic agenda to increase and widen the talent pool available to organisations.

The proposed framework offers the hospitality industry and its encompassing stakeholders a means to adopt a more proactive, collective and strategic approach to address long-standing talent challenges.

This paper combines brand equity and signalling theories to develop the concept of industry talent branding, defined as a strategically curated, yet realistic impression of the employee value proposition (i.e. the benefits and rewards received by employees in return for their work performance) available within the industry, that by design will sustainably attract new employees into the industry and retain existing talent.

The purpose of this paper is to set out to identify key team factors associated with the fast implementation of capital projects. Although scholars theorise that project success depends as much on the effective management of project personnel as on technical management, the project literature is virtually silent on which team practices are pivotal.

Using a model‐based quantitative research design, the impact of team management variables on the speed of two different phases of capital project implementation were examined: project execution and project construction. Multi‐method data collection included 252 individual surveys, archival documents, and whole team interviews conducted at the closeout of 56 capital projects implemented in four continents by 15 Fortune 500 companies in the process industries.

Empirical analysis revealed that only some of the variables predicted from other literatures (project manager – PM continuity, cross‐functional team integration, and PM incentives) were significantly linked to fast schedule outcomes. Some key drivers differed according to temporal phase.

Limitations of this study included its cross‐sectional design, modest sample size and sampling frame, but the findings clearly demonstrate the value of further research into key team factors for project success.

The results suggest that strategic management of project personnel can drive project speed. Phase‐linked key team practices are identified for improving time performance in capital projects.

This study breaks new ground by exploring whether key team practices are generic and phase‐specific, and by identifying specific team drivers of speed for two capital project phases using objective outcome measures.

As organizational misconduct, fraud and abuse increasingly make news headlines, public opinion is hardening against organizations that engage in illegal or unethical practices. Regulators are now acknowledging whistleblowers as frontline watchdogs, while governments are legislating to protect employees who report illegitimate conduct. However, many organizations are out of step: punishing or ignoring employees who speak up. These organizations run the risk that bad behaviour goes unchecked and that internal whistleblowers take their concerns outside the organization, creating reputational damage and potential legal ramifications. We argue that companies need to get back in step with society by encouraging employee voice as an early internal warning system to detect organizational misconduct. A five-step action plan is presented to enable management to create an ethical environment that encourages, trains and rewards employees to speak up openly about ethical concerns.