The Human Factor in Research Projects Conducted at Polish Universities

Abstract

This article is based on research conducted at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology and was financed by the National Centre of Science with the purpose of identifying success and failure factors for university research projects. The research shows that the human factor was crucial in determining the outcome of university research projects. This article presents the analysis and results of selected aspects of a research project into human resource management. The study involves in-depth interviews with 40 project managers of university research projects. Based on interview responses, the following features are evaluated: main reasons for starting research projects, different methods of selecting the research project manager, research team member selection criteria, management styles used by research projects managers, and crucial problems connected with the human factor that occurred in the research projects being analyzed. JEL Classification Numbers: I23, M12; DOI: http://dx