The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded by Interreg Central Europe with Migrants as the External Stakeholders during the COVID-19 Pandemic

9 TRENDY EKONOMIKY A MANAGEMENTU TRENDS ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT ISSN 1802-8527 (Print) / ISSN 2336-6508 (Online) 2021 38(2): 9–22 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13164/trends.2021.38.9 The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded by Interreg Central Europe with Migrants as the External Stakeholders during the COVID-19 Pandemic Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik Abstract Purpose of the article: The objective of this research was to examine the helpfulness of new IT tools which are used to project management. IT tools have been an important part of project management for a long time but after the pandemic time became an absolute necessity. The authors of this research examined whether project managers dealing with big international projects based on soft skills with the necessity of quick communication with internal and external stakeholders are convinced to work with a new tool and find it helpful. Methodology/methods: As a research sample, four consortiums of Interreg Central Europe have been chosen. Each consortium consists of 10 to 12 participant institutions, including the institutions of higher educations, NGOs and municipalities. The main objective of all selected projects is to support groups of migrants and refugees from programme countries. For the purpose of the research, the survey was designed and submitted to all institutions and project managers involved in four chosen projects. Scientific aim: The aim of the paper was to identify the issues regarding project management and risk management before and during the COVID-19 pandemic within Interreg Central Europe programmes considering internal and external stakeholders of the four chosen projects. Findings: The study showed that owing to the use of new IT tools, it was possible to maintain and improve communication in international project teams during the pandemic. The study also showed that surveyed project managers find helpful to work with new IT tools; however, they recognize risks related to communication with external project stakeholders. Most of those surveyed stated that new IT tool boosted the project teams’ communication but did not affect communication with digitally excluded stakeholders. Conclusions: In the authors’ opinion, the results confirm the purposefulness of using and developing the new IT tools despite issues with reaching external stakeholders. In the next step, the research will focus more on the external stakeholders’ issues with access to digital technologies, especially IT tools themselves. Keywords: project management, IT tools, risk management, digital technologies, team communication, international research projects, digital exclusion JEL Classification: M15, M21 Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 10 Introduction Nowadays, it is impossible to discuss research, interdisciplinary, and international cooperation without broadly defined project management. The objective of the research conducted by the authors was to examine the helpfulness of new IT tools which are used to project management. The selected projects are run by public institutions such as universities, polytechnics and research centres supported by NGOs, municipalities, and social enterprises. For all of these institutions and their projects, the COVID-19 pandemic had a deep and often negative impact. IT tools have been an important part of project management for a long time but after the pandemic time became an absolute necessity. The authors of this research examined whether project managers dealing with big international projects based on soft skills with the necessity of quick communication with internal and external stakeholders are convinced to work with a new tool and find it helpful. It is necessary to underline that this kind of projects involving higher education institutions and industry differ from development projects in regards of the management process (Huljenić et al., 2005). The conducted research is a pilot survey addressed to project managers as experts on the subject. 1. Theoretical background Project management is described as a set of activities which are leading to the realisation of project assumptions with a specific frame of time (Huljenić et al., 2005). The other definition by Kerzner defines a project as an undertaking aimed at achieving a set goal, requiring the use of resources and within the framework of time, cost and quality constraints (Kerzner, 2003). Projects are usually unique in nature. There are different methodologies of project management dedicated to different kinds of project (Notargiacomo Mustaro, Rossi, 2013). The literature on the subject distinguishes between different approaches to the project management and it is possible to find a number of methods and tools which are supportive for this kind of actions (Kostalova et al., 2015; Brocke, Lippe, 2015). Traditional project management is recognized as an established methodology where projects are carried out in a sequential cycle. The concept of traditional project management is based on predictable experience and predictable tools. Each project follows the same life cycle, which includes five stages: initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and closing (Abu-rumman, 2020). Another approach to the managing project is Agile Project Management (APM), focusing primarily on flexibility and effective collaboration between team members. The APM allows project teams to be more flexible and ensures that the end of result is compliant with the requirements. In this methodology, the project is divided into smaller, time-limited sprints, which usually last 2 weeks. These sprints help project teams to deal with changes and development flexibly (Khoza, Marnewick, 2020; Soroka-Potrzebna, 2019). In this article, the authors investigate the IT tools created to make management process and communication within it more productive and comprehensive. It is proven that communication technology is rapidly developing (Lovrek et al., 2003). Communication among project teams, projects partners, and with external stakeholders play an important role in the management process. Projects managers have always been trying to find the best way to communicate as the lack of proper communication could result in failure of the project deliverable (Kozarkiewicz, 2020; Marnewick, Marnewick, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge to all kinds of project management and communication itself (Hai et al., 2021). For the purpose of this article, the authors focus on projects built in interdisciplinary and international teams. Work organisation in this Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 11 kind of teams requires flexibility and various skills (Bond et al., 2021; Waszkiewicz, Gumienny, 2021). The four researched projects are financed from the Interreg Central Europe Programme, Priority axis 1 – Cooperating on innovation to make CENTRAL EUROPE more competitive (Programme Interreg Europa Środkowa, 2021). The programme mostly focuses on innovation and competitiveness increase, low-carbon strategies, natural and cultural resources and transport links. The programme’s budget for the years 2014 –2020 was € 246 million from the European Regional Development Fund. The programme mainly supported soft actions which were of transnational importance and produce lasting results. Projects within Interreg CE may involve the participation of institutions such as public authorities and institutions, service providers and recipients, technology transfer centres, regional agencies, associations of legal entities, European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation, advisory institutions, universities, research organisations, non-governmental organisations, and enterprises. The four selected projects tackle the issue of migrants and refugees in Central Europe. 1. Exploring social innovation approaches for the social and economic integration of non-EU nationals (Arrival Regions). ●The project duration: 01.04.2019 – 31.03.2022. ●The project consortium consists of 13 partners from 6 countries: Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Croatia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. ●Total budget: EUR 2,204,872.00 (Arrival Regions, 2021). 2. Social Entrepreneurship as an Enabling environment for Migrants’ Employment and Integration (SEE ME IN). ●The project duration: 01.04.2019 – 31.03.2022 ●The project consortium consists of 10 partners from 5 countries: Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Croatia, and Hungary. ●Total budget: EUR 2,126,052.14 (SEE ME IN, 2021). 3. Integrating Refugees in Society and the Labour Market Through Social Innovation (SIforREF). ●The project duration: 01.04.2019 – 31.03.2022. ●The project consortium consists of 11 partners from 4 countries: Italy, Slovenia, Germany, and Austria. ●Total budget: EUR 2,213,206.85 (SIforREF, 2021). 4. Transnational Action to advance SKills and competences FOR COmmunity engagement and social Migrants Entrepreneurship initiatives in the Central Europe (TASKFORCOME). ●The project duration: 001.03.2019 – 30.11.2021. ●The project consortium consists of 13 partners from 5 countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, and Croatia. ●Total budget: EUR 2,739,979.22 (TASKFORCOME, 2021). 2. Data sources The research was carried out using the CAWI method (Computer-Assisted Web Interview). A structured questionnaire was prepared by the authors of the presented article. The questionnaire was prepared in Microsoft Forms. The link to the questionnaire was provided via e-mail to the project manager of each partner from the 4 projects in the period from 19 July to 7 September 2021. The sampling was purposive, as the study was aimed at collecting the opinions of management experts from the examined projects to develop the reliability of the research. 17 correctly completed questionnaires were collected. The dataset was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The questionnaire was divided into 5 sections: Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 12 1. The first section included 10 general questions that allowed identifying the project, country and type of respondent institution. The questions in this section also concerned the methods of project management. 2. The second part contained 13 questions on the management of the entire project and concerned inter-institutional and international communication. This section was only filled in by project leaders. 3. This section consisted of 10 questions about the IT tools used. 4. The fourth section consisted of 6 questions that focused on communication in project teams. 5. The last section consisted of 7 questions related to communication with external stakeholders. Single-choice and multiple-choice questions were used, as well as rating questions with the Likert scale. Most of the responses were received from the representatives of the TASKFORCOME project (8 responses representing 47% of the research sample). SEE ME IN and Arrival Regions provided 4 responses each and 1 response was received from a representative of the SiFoREF project. The largest fraction (24% or 4 respondents) included the Italians, closely followed by the Croats, the German and the Polish (18% each). Next came Hungarians with 12%. The least numerous groups were Austrians and Slovenes (5% each). The Czechs and Slovaks did not take part in the survey. The highest number of responses came from the representatives of NGOs with 5 respondents, followed by the other public institutions with 4 respondents, and the research institutes and the territorial self-government units with 2 respondents each. The questionnaire was also completed by one representative of the universities, the social enterprises and the foundations, and other types of institutions, respectively. The representatives of the private enterprises did not take part in the survey. 3 of these institutions are project leaders; the remaining 14 are project partners. More than half of the surveyed teams consisted of less than 4 members (9 responses). The remaining 8 teams had 4 to 8 members. 3. Discussion 3.1 General communication within the examined projects When it comes to communication between the lead partner and the rest of the consortium, the research shows that the pandemic has not impacted it deeply. Generally, e-mail as a tool was used before the pandemic as frequently as during and after the lockdown. Project managers from lead institutions are users of the network drive; however, tools such as project management software and Microsoft task management tool are unknown to them. Most of them declared that they are familiar with IT communication tools, using them for international communication but one third admitted that they had never used such tools. Among the most popular communicators, it is possible to indicate ZOOM, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams. Lead partners’ project managers use network drives such as Google Drive and Dropbox to store data and project documents. From the Microsoft Management tool, they usually choose to use Excel and Outlook. The decision on using the specific tool was made on the basis of the price and the user-friendliness. The least important was e-mail integration and the mobile version. From the point of view of the lead institutions’ managers, the pandemic impacted the process of communication within Interreg projects in a negative way. 3.2 Project management tools in partners‘ institutions Within the survey, it appeared that most of the respondents use IT management tools that were known and popular before the pan- Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 13 demic time, including communicators such as WhatsApp or Skype yet still the communication via e-mail has remained the most popular (Figure 1). Figure 1. The use of IT management tools. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 2. Communication tools. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 3. The COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on using communication tools within projects. Source: Authors’ own work. Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 14 The most popular communication tools are chosen usually from these of the most accessible and often free of charge versions (Figure 2), including WhatsApp, ZOOM, Microsoft Teams. The reason for this could be the lack of funding dedicated to the programme for such expenditures and the lack of IT knowledge among the project managers under the investigation. The managers selected for the research are usually professionals in different areas such as social workers and researchers with social sciences backgrounds (Brière et al., 2015). The pandemic forced them not to use new IT communication tools but to use the previously known tools more often (Figure 3). Figure 4. Project management software. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 5. The COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on using project management software within projects. Source: Authors’ own work. Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 15 When it comes to project management, software the most popular examples include MS Teams, ASANA, Trello but software items such as Jira, Monday.com or MS Project are unknown (Figure 4). The frequency of using the project management software is higher during the pandemic and later it is maintained (Figure 5). Figure 6. Network data storage. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 7. The COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on using network data storage within projects. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 8. Microsoft management tools. Source: Authors’ own work. Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 16 Regarding network data storage the most popular are networks used by individual clients especially Dropbox (58 %), Google Disk (82 %), Microsoft OneDrive (40 %) (Figure 6). It seems that in the case of network data storage, the pandemic has not had a strong impact on working processes within the examined projects (Figure 7). Microsoft management tools are one of the most popular tools used by project managers from all over the world (Statista, 2021). There is no difference in the case of the examined projects. Excel and Outlook are moving forward when it comes to popularity among project managers (Figure 8). The same tools were also used before the pandemic, but it can be said that pandemic slightly increased the frequency of using Microsoft management tools (Figure 9). 3.3 Organisation of teams‘ cooperation Regarding project team meetings using communicators, it can be seen clearly that before the pandemic, it was not as popular as during the pandemic time. It looks that now meetings via IT tools have become the standard. Among the respondents, most are using communicators. 23.5 % of the respondents declaFigure 9. The COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on using Microsoft management tools within projects. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 10. Share of the project team meetings organized using IT tools (i.e. communicators). Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 11. Frequency of on-line project team meetings. Source: Authors’ own work. Anna Drabina, Sylwia Krzyżek-Liburska, Katarzyna Wójcik: The Impact of the New Technologies on Managing Projects Funded ... 17 red that they are using them often 35.3 % declared that they are using IT communication tools very often, and 17.6 % declared that they always use communicators during project meetings. Some of the project activities involving communication were implemented via communicators before the pandemic yet more than 29 % of the respondents stand that they had never used communicators before the pandemic (Figure 10). When it comes to the frequency of meetings it can be observed that during the pandemic, time the intensity was increased, most often the meetings were settled once a week or once a month (Figure 11). Now the respondents state that the frequency has slightly decreased but still most maintain the regular meeting via communicators. The authors of the research tried to rate the project managers satisfaction with using the basic communicators. E-mail communication still prevails (Figure 12); this tool is used by all respondents. Project management software is not used by 37.5 % of the respondents, network drive is unused by 13.3 %, and communicators are unused by 6.3 % of the respondents. The respondents underline that when it comes to determinants of used IT tools, the most important are user-friendliness, availability, flexibility, and costs (Figure 13). Figure 12. Rate your satisfaction. Source: Authors’ own work. Figure 13. How important were the following determinants of used IT tools for you. Source: Authors’ own work.