Behavioural competences through the outcomes of the IPMA research community

The model of IPMA about the competences in project management is codified in the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). Those competences should be part of the knowledge and know-how of project managers as crucial factors to be effective and competitive. But it is quite common sense that effectiveness and competitiveness in a project require people to be innovative and effective. Behavioural competences are considered as one of the three key areas within the ICB, but surprisingly they seem to be quite neglected among the research community at IPMA World Congresses. A first attempt to analyse to what extent the various competences of the ICB model was done by the author in a paper discussed at the IPMA World Congress 2008; this paper is the continuance of that research, with a more focused interest and with more collected data. This paper aims also to find which are the main behavioural competences discussed in the papers of the last three IPMA World Congresses and the areas where researchers and practitioners seem to be more trusted in. This could be the starting point for discussing if the less popular topics (among the ICB 3.0 competences) are really relevant and if they should be considered for being discussed more in detail within the next edition of the ICB. Or conversely if IPMA should be encouraged to study and circulate experiences about them more effectively and frequently.