mp12a

1. Introduction
As communication is an important issue in projects, social competence in general is crucial for success. Especially any lack of social competence can cause serious problems and may lead to failure of the complete project.

This course focuses on the aspects of social competence, which are especially relevant for project management (e.g. communication, leadership, self-management, corporate social responsibility). As some of these aspects have already been taught in other courses (e.g. MP11 Communication, team building etc. from MP06 Human Resources Management), this course adds the open aspects and integrates them all under the general roof of social competence.

This course includes case studies and role play activities to develop skills and competences of students through real situations. The international orientation of the students is utilized to create case studies and role plays which are especially valid for European/ international projects. This offers the opportunity to experience the complexities of human interaction with single individuals as well as groups to explore and develop the necessary social competence to manage projects.

The course, as it emphasizes social competence in project management, is integrated into the framework of EuroMPM courses e.g. by continuously using some of the methods, tools and theory from other courses in the case studies and role plays. Nevertheless it is strongly related to the courses about communication, leadership, teambuilding and conflicts, as it integrates them (or some of their aspects) under the more general roof of social competence.

The learning out-comes within framework of European Qualification Framework (EQF) are defined and documented regarding knowledge, skills and competence levels. The objectives are to enable students to explain concepts of social competence and to consider recent developments. At skills level, they will be able to reflect about perceived behaviour, in general act socially competent, detect lacks in social competence in team members and act accordingly. The students will also develop competence to apply the before mentioned skills in the situation of a project and develop new concepts for unforeseen situations. They understand the connections to other areas of project management.

2. Course Structure
• Introduction to Social Competence, definition • Self-Management • Integrating related concepts from other courses • Perception & Communication • Leadership & Teambuilding • Motivation & Conflicts • Interventions: Tools & Techniques • Diversity & Gender • Context for social competence: Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Conduct Guidelines

3. Case Studies
Several case studies and role plays will be used for analysis and practice of different aspects of social competence.

4. Parameters
ECTS: 3 Hours of study in total: 90 Weekly hours per semester: 2 Course characteristics: compulsory Course frequency: every year - summer semester Maximal capacity: 15 students Course admittance prerequisites: no special requirements Skills trained in this course: professional, methodological, and personal skills Assessment of the course: Teaching staff: Prof. Dr. Christian Reimann, Prof. Dr. Peter Reusch
 * Contact hours: 30
 * Self study hours: 60
 * 75% contributions within the course (group work on case study, individual paper on research topic)
 * 25% written or oral examination at the end of the course

5. Learning outcomes
**5.1 Knowledge**

The students can


 * explain social competence terms and related concepts.
 * describe core issues of social competence in project management.
 * describe different aspects of social competence.
 * explain behavioural models and advance concepts.
 * explain tools and techniques for intervention.
 * explain concepts for managing diversity and gender aspects.
 * describe concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Conduct Guidelines

**5.2 Skills**

The students are able to
 * use concepts of social competence in project management
 * evaluate social behaviour
 * observe, evaluate and apply the social context in a situation
 * develop self-awareness, self-confidence, self-assurance and self-actualisation and assist others in doing so

in a given context in the course.

**5.3 Competence - attitude**

They are able to


 * identify and develop their role in teams & projects
 * design and implement a project team culture, which cultivates social competence
 * develop and implement concepts to deal with challenges caused by aspects of diversity and gender
 * apply and interpret Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Conduct Guidelines
 * create intervention plans and implement these according to situations

in a new context / project.

**5.4 On scaling outcomes**

The assessment of learning outcomes is based upon the following core perspectives:
 * Completeness – regarding social competence in projects
 * Analysis – analyze behaviour of team member, stakeholders, etc. as individuals and groups
 * Analysis - Analyze social context in given projects or organization
 * Analysis - detect and predict potential conflicts in a given project/organization or team situation
 * Tools – apply tools and techniques for intervention
 * Tools – apply tools and techniques for self management

6. Teaching and training methods:

 * Lectures introducing concepts, methods and tools
 * Group work to train concepts and methods, to develop skills and to work on case studies
 * Role plays (videotaped for analysis) to experience, observe, evaluate and train behaviour in different contexts
 * Home work to add individual contributions
 * Presentations to communicate results

7. Course mapping
This course is linked to other courses of the study program in the following way:

**MP01a: Projects: Concept, Types, Cases, Context and Organization** MP01a shows the need for social competence.

**MP02a: Life cycle Concepts, Maturity Models, Customer Relation Ship, Stakeholder Management** MP02a shows the need of social competence with regard to stakeholders and customers.

**MP03a: Project Planning** Social competence is embedded in project planning.

**MP04a: Managing Risk** Social competence is embedded in risk management.

**MP05a: Project Economics** Communication of project economics requires high social competence.

**MP06a: Project Control** Social competence is embedded in project control.

**MP07a: Team management** Team management is impossible without social competence.

**MP08a: Project Organization** The development of a project organization includes the development of communication using social competence.

**MP09a: Standards and Mainstreams**

Standards and mainstreams define the external framework for socially competent behaviour.

**MP10a: Managing Quality** Quality management principles and processes shape social competence.

Communication is the core social competency to better cater the social responsibility to the organization and community
 * MP11a: Communications, Negotiation and Conflict**

**MP12a: Intercultural Communication** With globalization, cultural diversity results in teams not sharing the same expectations towards social behaviour, which increases the conflict potential. To deal with conflicts in very diverse teams challenges the leader social competence.

**MP14a: Information and Knowledge Management** Creating a knowledge and information pool shared by all team members is a basic foundation for communication and understanding/interpreting behaviour.

**MP15a: Project Finance** To ensure the necessary social competence of all team members may require financial resources.

**MP16a: Legal Aspects in Project Management: Contracts, Procurement, and further Issues** Social competence helps to deal with the communication challenges in the context of contracts and procurement.

**MP17a: Change Management** Social competence is crucial to prepare and implement changes. The impact of changes has to be estimated, observed, evaluated and communicated with regard to its social consequences.

**MP18a: Program and Portfolio Management** The potentially bigger stakeholder groups require even more social competence than normal projects.

**MP20a: Safety, Health and the Environment** Social competence ensure the empathy, which is necessary to deal with SHE related topics.

8. References:
Most course materials are available in ILIAS - a few books to mention here:

1. PMI: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge - PMBOK® - 4th edition 2008, ISBN 1933890665. 2. PMI: The Standard for Program Management, 2nd edition 2008, ISBN1933890524. 3. Harold Kerzner: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, John Wiley & Sons 10th edition 2009, ISBN0470278706. 4. Christian Majer, Luis Stabauer: social competence im Projektmanagement (in German), Goldegg Verlag 2010, ISBN978-3-902729-31-6 5. Ronald Haccou, Ben Van Hamond: Gaining & Proving Yourself in Social Competence: The Atlas Way, Garant Uitgevers N V (31. Juli 2006), ISBN9044120611 6. Norma C. Lang: Group Work Practice to Advance Social Competence: A Specialized Methodology for Social Work, Columbia Univ Pr (1. August 2010), ISBN9780231151375