PLM did research in 2017 to obtain information for the planned promotion of the PLM approach and technique. Information would concern the current knowledge about project management, and its use beyond business.
One part of the questionnaire dealt with the opinions of the participants on the elements, steps and toolset of project management (PM). The research results were first analysed by gender, age and education level. Based on all this, we can state that about half of men thought they “know well” the elements of PM, its steps and its toolset, while less than a fifth of women thought the same. This difference may be the result of women working as project managers or associates in lower numbers.
Leading and managing positions of project work are similarly gender-balanced as all other walks of life: even in feminine professions, leaders are mostly men. However, PM experiences and knowledge doesn’t only come from being a manager, being a member of the workgroup will do perfectly, therefore, the analysis covered these cases as well. At these cases, the results were mostly similar. The women in the sample had significantly lower knowledge and experience in project work and management compared to men.
The questionnaire also covered the analysis of PM knowledge by age brackets. From this perspective, the results were surprising: the youngest generation’s members basically didn’t say they know PM practice well, whereas 10% of them merely heard about it. The results of the elder generations are similarly surprising: more than half of them noted that they know the PM perspective and practice well.
As for Education level, the higher results the participant achieved in education, the better they said they know project management. Altogether, we can say that among our participants, mostly the more educated and older men showed more experience in project management. In the following part of the research, we focused on how much those that know, or have heard of project management, consider it applicable to managing private life.