PROJECT SUCCESS: ROLE OF ORGANISATION STRENGTHS AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES

Purpose of the study: This research examines the major organisation strength factors, important project management competencies, and the criteria for project success, and their interrelationship. Methodology: A mixed-method approach is applied with a positivist stance to test the validity of the proposed hypotheses. Based on the detailed literature review and five expert interviews, 'organisation strengths' are identified and classified into three subcategories, making a second-order construct. A survey strategy is used to collect data from PMO individuals of construction organisations. SmartPLS software is used to analyse 97 responses. Main Findings: The results of this study support the proposed relationship. It suggests that organisation strengths influence project management competencies and project success. Furthermore, resources and capabilities influence project success. The findings are in line with the literature suggesting that organisation resources and capabilities are important for project success. Application of the study: This study is relevant for PMO individuals, especially in construction organisations. The findings highlight the importance of organisational strengths that lead to build project management competencies and eventually attain project success. These organisational strengths are of great significance to both the researchers and industry practitioners. The originality of the study: This study has applied a mixed-method approach. The model in the study empirically tests the organisation strength factors affecting project success. Furthermore, the study used SmartPLS software to test the influence of organisation strength to increase project management competencies and their cumulative effect on project success.


INTRODUCTION
A project is an effective approach, besides other industries, in the construction business. Construction projects are of different types in complexity and size (Alzahrani et Belout & Gauvreau, 2004). Successful construction projects are important for the country's development because these provide physical infrastructures such as roads, dams, parks, museums, and overpasses. Successful completion of projects, particularly in the construction industry in Pakistan, is a serious issue to be focused on (Saad, Zahid, & Muhammad, 2020). Therefore, it is relevant to study the project success factors in the context of the construction industry in Pakistan.
Organisational strengths play the main role in leading business (Bocken & Geradts, 2020). Organisatios should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses to cope with the challenges of increased competition (Mir & Pinnington, 2014). Organisations with the capability to utilize their strengths are more successful (de Bakke, Boonstra, & Wortmann, 2012). An organisation with the least focus on its strength factors cannot survive in the competitive business environment (Fells, 2000;Lieshout et al., 2020). It is important to know project management competencies, implications, and usage in construction projects (Remidez & Jones, 2012).
Project management competencies act like a catalyst in the production of successful construction projects along with organisation strengths (Chen et  It would be worthwhile to find out those organisational strengths that would lead the construction projects towards success. Indeed, several significant studies have recently been done on projects and organisation strengths. Many researchers have talked about organisation strengths, project success, success criteria, and management competencies separately, and they focus on specific projects and specific country situations (Hwang & Ng, 2013;Remidez & Jones, 2012; Abdul-rahman, Wang, & Muhammad, 2011; Müller et al., 2013). Previous studies have not holistically considered the effect of organisation strengths and project management competencies on project success. There is little empirical research on the success factors of construction projects in Pakistan (Saad et al., 2020). It is worthy of building a performance measurement model for the success of projects in construction organisations in Pakistan.
This study explores the relationship between project success and its assumed antecedents in the construction industry located in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.
To empirically test the relationship between the factors under consideration, data is obtained from construction organisations and analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The following sections present a literature review on the variables of the study's conceptual framework, method relevant to the purpose of the study, data collection approach, sampling technique, data analysis method, results, discussion, and conclusion.

LITERATURE REVIEW
There have been numerous discussions in the literature about construction organisations, organisation strengths and project success. The construction organisation is necessary for the development of the state (Rodríguez-Rivero, Ortiz-Marcos, Díaz-Barcos, & Lozano, 2020; Meng, 2012). Construction projects in Pakistan are generally focused on physical infrastructure development, irrigation, transportation, and agriculture (Saad et al., 2020;Doloi, 2009). It is the upcoming need of Pakistan to reform construction organisations (Choudhry, Hinze, Arshad, & Gabriel, 2012; Kulshreshtha, 2008). Choudhry et al. (2012) examined that in Pakistan, the construction organisations lack the latest tools and techniques; somehow, they do not have the latest machinery as this is the drawback of the construction industry, which fails construction projects. To avoid failure, organisations need to focus on their strengths (Müller et al., 2013). The literature seems to emphasise project-related factors connected to organisational resources and capabilities, organisational strategies, and relationships of organisation with other partners.
Performance and success are the goals of all construction projects (Pheng & Chuan, 2006; Abdul-rahman et al., 2011; Ghoddousi & Hosseini, 2012). The success level in construction projects depends upon quality, time, cost, safety, and political stability (Choudhry et al., 2012). Many construction industries face delays in construction projects. The level of uncertainty in the construction sector is on the higher side as compared to other industries, thus, there is a need to develop a frame of organisation strength factors to avoid delay and failures in construction projects (Ghoddousi & Hosseini, 2012). For complex construction projects, the strengths of the organisation are critical for the successful accomplishment of construction projects (Shin, 2012).

Organisation Strengths
If a construction company has enough command on success factors, it will become the organisation's strength (Müller et al., 2013). It is not easy to categorise some characteristics of organisations as strengths due to the nature of these characteristics Both the academician and practitioners have a keen interest to find out the organisation strengths. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) explained that the organisation strengths include project completion on time, proper project planning, skilled project manager, project information flow, change accommodation, employees rewarding, and implementing innovations, leadership, financial resources, technical competency, experienced staff, proper planning, trust, different strategies, and relationship with other parties (Munns & Bjeirmi, 1996).

Strategic Decisions
Strategic decisions are different in different countries according to industries and country situations (Rodríguez-Rivero et al., 2020). Strategic decisions will meet recent challenges globally, and strategies tell which technologies to be adapted (Mir & Pinnington, 2014).

Strength of Relationship with Other Parties
An organisation's relationships with stakeholders are the dimension of an organisation strength (Saad et al., 2020). In construction projects, relationships with stakeholders involve material suppliers, public or private clients, contractors and subcontractors, labourers, different companies, mandatory agencies, and financial institutions (Madter et al., 2012). To build cooperation and combine satisfaction among parties, the relationship between them should be strong and trustworthy. Business parties should value each other. In any business, the stakeholder's satisfaction is the key to a successful business, especially in construction companies. The satisfaction of primary and secondary relationship from higher authorities to lower staff is very important (Belout & Gauvreau, 2004; Sergeeva & Ali, 2020).

Project Management Competencies
Competency is the capability to work efficiently to meet the required goals and objectives (   The following main hypotheses are drawn from the literature review findings.

Hypothesis 1 (H 1 ):
There is a positive influence of organisation strength on project management competencies.

Hypothesis 2 (H 2 ):
There is a positive influence of project management competencies on project success.

Hypothesis 3 (H 3 ):
There is a positive influence of organisation strength on project success.
To test the above hypotheses, the methodology is given in the following section.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Positivism is the research philosophy followed primarily for this research. Positivism is concerned with observing and predicting outcomes. It is a method used to propose and test theories with structured data in which research is independent of the researcher's values (Saunders & Lewis, 2012). This type of research approach is deductive, in which hypotheses are made based on literature review, the data is analysed, and then the hypotheses are rejected or accepted according to the data analysis outcomes. A mixed-method approach comprising quantitative and qualitative research as a methodological choice has been chosen. The initial data has been collected through expert interviews. The results of these interviews have been used to develop a questionnaire. Then, the quantitative data collected through the questionnaires have been analysed using statistical techniques. The survey strategy has been used to collect data in a structured form by considering a suitable sample size. This collected data is cross-sectional. To obtain this type of data, the survey is undertaken to answer a question simultaneously, and multiple responses are collected (Saunders & Lewis, 2012).

Research Variables
There are three latent variables named "Organisation Strength", "Project Management Competencies", and "Project Success". Organisation strength is used as the main independent variable. Organisation strength is further divided into three dimensions: Resources and Capabilities, Strategic Decisions, Relationship with other parties.
Project management competencies has been used as both the exogenous and the endogenous (in terms of SEM) variable as it is affecting project success and itself being affected by organization strength. Project success is kept as the main dependent variable in the proposed research model for this study. The dependent variable is project success, with 6 indicators connected to the successful accomplishment of projects within time, under budget, and full safety.

Data Collection
The secondary data has been collected through the systematic literature review. This review mainly focuses on gathering information and obtaining an understanding of organisation strength, project management competencies, project success, and their potential relationships. . Interviews were conducted with five (05) persons. The major purpose of those interviews was to obtain an expert opinion about key components of organisational strength, project management competencies, project success, and the potential effect of the first two upon the last one in the construction industry. Through these interviews, the importance of those factors in the construction projects of Rawalpindi and Islamabad was assessed.
A questionnaire was then designed incorporating the particularly mentioned indicators of organisation strength, project management competencies, and project success by above mentioned experts. Through a questionnaire, feedback of respondents was obtained about these variables. The respondents answered on a Likert scale ranging from 1-7, where 1 represented strongly disagree and 7 represented strongly agree. SPSS and SmartPLS softwares have been used for data analysis.

Sample Design
The construction industry of Pakistan is chosen for the study. The data is collected from the construction companies of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. There are seventy (70) construction organisations, members of the Construction Association of Pakistan (CAP) in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A convenient sampling technique is used for this study. Twenty (20) companies were selected based on their consent for participation in the study, and one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were circulated for data collection. The potential respondents returned one hundred and three (103) questionnaires. All the questionnaires were carefully checked for any mistakes and inappropriate responses. Six (06) questionnaires carried missing values; therefore, ninety-seven (97) responses have been used for final data analysis. The overall response rate has been 64.6% in this case.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
SmartPLS is used to analyse the data by employing the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Both measurement and structural models have been estimated to explain the proposed relationship among different variables for this research.
The reliability and validity of variables have been tested for the measurement model. Path analysis has been conducted to analyse the structural model and R square and adjusted R square values have also been estimated. The significance of the relationships among variables has been predicted through bootstrapping procedure.
The reliabilities are estimated using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability. Cronbach's alpha is called the internal consistency reliability, which measures the extent to which items are closely related to each other as a group. The values of alpha, greater than 0.60 are considered acceptable for this purpose (Nunnally, 1994  For measurement of the structural model, regression analysis is performed to predict the path coefficients of the proposed relationships among different variables. The significance of different relationships has also been measured to test the reliability of the standard estimates (beta coefficients). Bootstrapping is performed with sample size=5000 and cases=97.  The results of this study support the proposed relationship among the variables. It is traced that organisation strength influences project management competencies having a beta value of 0.847 and t-value 18.452. This finding provides enough support for the confirmation of hypothesis H1 at both the construct and factor level.
This research also reports the direct influence of "project management competencies" on project success. SmartPLS regression results show the significant positive impact of project management competencies on project success with a beta value of 0.530 and a t-value of 6.226. This result qualifies for the acceptance of hypotheses H2. Furthermore, organisation strength has a strong positive impact on project success with a beta value of 0.40 and a t-value of 4.694. Hence, hypothesis H3 is also accepted based on these results.
The indicators of the organisation strength are measured, and their importance is being analysed through the rating of the respondent companies. According to the rating of the respondents, the importance of the parameters is demonstrated. All the performance indicators of organisation strength are found to be important. This finding suggests that there is a need for organisation strength in the construction industry to measure performance. All three sub-components of organisation strength are also found to have high weights (see table 4). The results suggest that company resources and capabilities determine organisation strength (Zuo et al., 2018) with a factor loading of 0.981. Two indicators, "experience" and "technical competency", are found to be the most influential as compared to the other indicators. A competent technical team is very important for successful projects in construction companies. Experience also seems to be very important because lessons are learned through all previous projects. Financial resources are also found to be a clear indicator of organisation strength. Strategic decisions are the strong dimension of organisation strength, with a loading of 0.95. Project selection strategy is rated as the highest as compared to other strategies while "client selection" is rated as moderate. Networking Strength, with a factor loading of 0.90, is a major indicator of "organisation strength". Among the strength of relationship with other parties, "Relations with client" is suggested to be an essential indicator. Relationship with a labour union is also found to be important. It seems important to have good relationships with labour union (Sergeeva & Ali, 2020).
The results of this study are found to be consistent with theories in the existing literature. Among the project management competencies, the essential and most influential are cost management, human resource management and procurement management. The indicators measuring project success are: time, cost, quality, safety, performance, effectiveness, and stakeholder satisfaction. All the project success indicators are equally important except project safety to survive a project and develop future strategies. The low ranking of project safety suggests improving the safety standards to avoid potential harmful risks for the projects.

DISCUSSION
The current study finds that organization strength and project management competencies have strong ability to influence project success. It is also found that organisation strength has a significant relationship that positively influences competencies and project success. The beta coefficients are 0.847 and 0.4 with respective t-values of 18.452 and 4.694 for these two mentioned relationships (table 2). Project management competencies also affect the project success positively and significantly having values of beta coefficient 0.53 and t-value 6.226 (see table 2). Furthermore, organisation strength and project management competencies jointly affect the project success significantly. The value of R square for this relationship is 0.8 (see table 3); it means that these two former variables tend to cause 80% variance in the latter variable. Overall, the results of this study support the already proposed relationships.
Resources and capabilities are important contributors to organisation strength, having a factor weight of 0.981 and tvalue 25.383 (see table 4 Strength of relationship with other parties is another significant component of Organisation strength as it is evident having factor loading of 0.9 and a t-value of 11.66 (see table 4). It becomes clearer that these three, company recourses and capabilities, strategic decisions, and networking strength, are dimensions of organisation strength.

CONCLUSION
The current study finds that organization strength and project management competencies sturdily influence project success. It is also found that organisation strength has a significant relationship that positively influences project management competencies and project success. This research also proves the joint influence of organisation strength and project management competencies on project success. To gain project success, companies should focus on their strength and apply project management competencies intelligently based on the criteria of project success. The objectives of this research were accomplished by investigating this important phenomenon in project management and the business domain.

LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH
Geographically, this study is conducted in one country that is Pakistan and specifically in its two cities; Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The data is collected only from the construction industry. Only PMO (project management office) individuals who worked in construction organisations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were involved in the study.

APPLICATION OF THE STUDY
The findings have offered an insight that how different types of organisations strengths impact project management competencies and also project success or organisation performance. The findings in this study also have the potential to act as a catalyst to further research in these areas in many ways. The investigation points out that the organisation's perception of the organisation's strength and overall project success might be dependent and related to each other. An organisation needs attention in organisational structure, organisational leadership, organisation culture and etc. There is a need for future research on organisation strength and its effect on project success. Future empirical research will be needed to assess the role of these entities as a variable of the performance measurement model, including the project management competencies, organisation strength and project success. Researchers have aligned the perception of management competencies, organisation strength and project success side by side. The present study provides empirical evidence and offers insight into the three connected variables. Particularly this study reveals that the organisations having a keen interest in enhancing their strengths and strive in this regard are the most successful and survive for a long time. The project success measurement model presented in this study may facilitate the organisations to make their place at the international level in the business world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank all the independent reviewers of HSSR for their suggestions for improvement of this research work.