Verktækni - 2019, Qupperneq 95

95

participants estimate that this will rise to 31,5% in coming years (2019) which means a relative growth
of 21% in work assigned to projects from 2009 to 2014.
Another interesting result is that there is a significant difference in the view of the managers in the
context of the size of the organization. Trust in the growing impact of project management increases in
positive correlation with the number of employees and capital turnover of the company.
The results are also significant in verifying the importance of project management in the Icelandic
economy. Close to 50% of the managers in the different industries agree that the use of project
management is common. Again, the same trends are spotted as before. The size of the company shapes
the attitude towards the application of project management in compliance with the description of the
discipline provided in the survey. To cite an example, 30,7% of managers in companies with a turnover
of less than 199 m ISK find project management to be very common or rather common compared to
72,7% among their peers in companies with a turnover exceeding 5000 m ISK. This is a relative
difference of 137%. The difference is even more striking when compared to the number of employees.
In spite of significant interest in project management in Iceland and a strong response from industry and
academia, other studies indicate insufficient governance platform (Fridgeirsson, 2015). When the
economic impact is considered, the call for reforms in the public sector is urgent, a claim that is
supported, for example, by the reports published by the Icelandic government (INR, 2016).
Another interesting contribution is how the high-level managers on Icelandic organizations view the
importance of projects and project management. Their interest both in the profession as such and in
apply project management clearly shows, and their belief in the significance of project management is
positively correlated with the size of the organization they manage. All this indicates a progression
towards the increased appreciation for the project management profession.
Two very different research approaches were used in the research. The first was a detailed survey of the
economic impact of projects through the application of a method that had already been tested in
Germany. This method yields a quantitative assessment of the gross added value of project work within
the country´s economy, and a prognosis on how this will evolve in the near future. The second was a
general survey of a large sample of managers in Iceland, where they estimated the present and future
level of projectification of their organisations. But in context the results yield a very revealing portrait of
the projectification of the Icelandic economy, which can be viewed in reference to the size, turnover and
type of the organisations, as well as other variables. The two research approaches complement each
other and could be applied in a systematic way to give a longitudinal view of the evolution of
projectification in society. The first part is more complicated and expensive in execution, and could be
done with longer intervals, whereas the second part takes less effort and can be used to monitor the
evolution more regularly.

Conclusion
This study had four objectives; (i) to investigate the importance of projects and the project management
within Icelandic organizations, (ii) to investigate the importance of projects and project management
within the Icelandic business community, (iii) to investigate whether the project management profession
is becoming stronger or not, and (iv) to describe an alternative method for measuring the impact of
projects. All objectives were met, and the research finding clearly demonstrates how instrumental
projects and their professional management are for modern societies.