Skills and competences international project managers need in order to be successful in a virtual work environment

Abstract

Bibliographic research has revealed that, in order to increase performance and the involvement of virtual team members, and in order for international projects to be successfully completed, project managers must possess or acquire specific skills and competencies, with a view to being able to adjust to the new work environment. Consequently, they should know how to build a team in the virtual work environment, understand how it functions, how to communicate effectively select and use the most appropriate virtual instruments – support for collaborative processes-, etc. The paper reaches its objectives, by presenting the main challenges that international project managers encounter and by proposing a model of the international project manager´s profile.