Career Development of Project Management Professionals: Using Salaries as Extrinsic Rewards

Introduction

In many multinational companies, managers and employees participate increasingly in career development and training processes. Companies often incentivize employees to continuously develop and train their knowledge, innovation approaches, and competencies (Negulescu, 2018; El-Sabaa, 2001). The motivation of individuals to enhance individual human capital (including credentials and experiences) is often in anticipation of the value of the exchange with their respective employers (Negulescu, 2018; Nahapiet and Ghosah, 1998). Similarly, multinational companies often signal expectations for salary increases by emphasizing the value of positions, credentials, experiences, and work locations in hiring and promotion practices (Spence, 1976). Professional certifications (such as those offered by PMI), job positions, career paths, and performance skills may serve as employees’ signals to employers that they have obtained knowledge and skills that deserve to be rewarded by their organizations.

Project management professional is a human capital position that includes employees leading teams to manage change, including project goals, objectives, and deliverables (Project Management Institute, 2017). The project manager possesses individual capabilities, including professional and technical know-how, certification skills, experiences, and performance skills (Mayo, 2000; Project Management Institute, 2017). Therefore, the well-trained and more experienced project professional provides a competitive advantage (Barney, 1991) through successful implementations, and organizations reward human capital for required skills and experiences (Agarwal, 1981) through salaries and compensation packages (Negulescu, 2018; Kornelakis, 2018). One important consideration for human resource departments is to ensure that there is equitable pay for project managers from different home countries working collaboratively on the same projects with similar job capabilities (Watson & Singh, 2005).

Extrinsic rewards, including salaries, have been studied as measures of career success (Negulescu, 2018; Gutteridge, 2001). Organizations that provide career development opportunities have been noted as environments that allow employees to continually expand their opportunities to create their extrinsic rewards (Senge, 1999). Specifically, career development opportunities allow project managers access to mobilize their human capital resources including certifications, skills, experiences, and job positions to attain extrinsic rewards. Identifying factors that signal salaries can be paramount in helping project managers identify those attributes to obtain in expectation of maximizing salaries (Karasek III, & Bryant, 2012; Spence, 1976). Additionally, human resource practitioners, senior management, and executive recruiters can use this information to identify and signal the skills, knowledge, and career paths needed to develop project managers, including pay practices such as pay transparency.