Abstract EN:

The project management literature is dominated by the normative theory which is focused on the methods and management techniques and the key factors of success. Thus, it occults more or less the project management contingency and both the organizational and human resources management problematics (Shenhar, 2001). This theoretical observation coupled with the empirical one related to the failure of the major infrastructure projects are at the origin of this research on the roles of the projects managers in the constructions projects of large dams in Morocco. Our thesis asks the two following questions: how can we explain the roles diversity of the project manager in the large dams construction? How do the project manager’s roles and the characteristics of the project evolve during the course of the project? So we have achieved an empirical study on thirty three projects founded on mixed methods ; qualitative and quantitative. The results underscore the relation between the project manager’s roles and the contingent characteristics of the project (NTCP), and show that the project manager’s roles evolve I, function of the evolution of the contingent characteristics of the project (TCP). This research contributes to the development of a contingent and dynamic theory of the project manager’s roles. Thus, it calls into question the universal foundations of the project management. From the managerial point of view, it can help the project managers to organize their roles into a hierarchy and to adapt them to the contingent characteristics of the project, and the human resources directors in appointing the right project managers to different types of projects.