26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

The role of communication in project management has been intensively debated for decades. It has been investigated from various perspectives and has enjoyed a substantial coverage in project management literature. Communication has been identified as key to success and poor communication as the reason for many project failures. While some researchers have considered communication as just a success factor in project management and others have identified communication as an important skill and a required competency for project managers, there is still a need to establish contextual and empirical evidences on how communication impact project performance. With the use of social medias as communications tool emerging within the literature, it is equally important to identify the best set of tools and techniques to be used for successful management of communication. This paper aims to evaluate and uncover the relationship between communication and project management. It uncovers tools needed for successful management of communication and the extent to which communication impacts project outcomes through an empirical study. A quantitative research approach was used to shed light on current practices of communication in the project management industry. A survey questionnaire was distributed to a population a purposive sample consisted of professionals who are involved in project management The responses of 70,7% participants were received and analysed using the e-surveycreator on-line tool and statistical analysis using SPSS. The purpose of the survey questionnaire was to test the evidence in the literature in order to answer the research objectives. The results indicated tha there is a strong positive relationship between communication and project outcomes. Communication increase success rate and improve the overall performance of projects. The vital role of communication is clearly recognised as indicated by the empirical evidence gathered. The tools and techniques required to successfully manage communication are identified together with the Information Communication technology (ICT) support tools. Moreover, the results also established that project managers who regards communication as one of the most important factors contributing to the success of projects achieved higher success rate in their projects than the other participants. The high success rate seen on their projects is a direct result of effective communication. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by producing empirical evidence on how communication impact the performance of a project and provides the best set of tools and techniques that are required to successfully manage communication. It further singles out social media tools that can be used to improve project communication. This work forms the basis of further development into how should the social media identified be used and to what extend can they be relied on as a means of project communication, and what the impact thereof would be. These tools have the potential transform communication in the project management field. The use of social media in projects is still a highly debatable issue and the exploration of the extent to which social medias should be used to improve communication in project management would be a great contribution to the body of knowledge as their use embodies considerable risks and controversies. Key words Social Media, Project Management, Project communication, Project Performance