Business Administration / Διοίκηση Επιχειρήσεων (Μ.Β.Α)

Agile project management has surfaced as a potent antidote to the limitations built into traditional project management approaches, which usually failed in the face of the quick speed of change and technical advancement in the software industry. Agile strategies underscore the significance of adaptability, teamwork, and customer-focused solutions. This dissertation unravels the multifaceted role of Agile project management within the software sector, spotlighting its iterative technique that values collaboration, adaptability, and customer satisfaction. The investigation delves deep into Agile's benefits, success factors, challenges, and workable solutions. A thorough literature analysis outlines the history of agile methodologies, compares them to traditional project management, looks at success criteria, obstacles to adopting agile methodologies, and discusses various agile frameworks critically. Leveraging a quantitative research methodology, this investigation collates data from a cohort of 98 respondents through a structured questionnaire. The employment of factor and regression analysis facilitates the identification of pivotal Agile attributes that serve to amplify project success, team performance, individual productivity, and organizational efficacy. The results demonstrate that Agile approaches amplify project success through nurturing adaptability, flexibility, and superior team communication. Prominent benefits include optimized resource utilization, enhanced project quality, expedited delivery, amplified customer satisfaction, and a progressive work environment. However, hurdles such as the adaptation of Agile methodologies to align with existing organizational processes, ambiguous role responsibilities, and insufficient organizational support can inhibit Agile assimilation and implementation. In response to these challenges, the dissertation proposes potential solutions such as proficient change management, bespoke training initiatives, amplified team communication and cooperation, and the establishment of cross-functional teams to boost coordination. This scholarly work is of substantial value to organizations as it provides critical insights into the successful implementation and integration of Agile practices, thereby enabling software firms to hone their project management strategies, elevate organizational performance, and maintain a competitive edge in an accelerated industry.

This study investigates the customer involvement in decision making procedure and the impact on company’s innovative capabilities. A survey with quantitative questionnaires was used. Based on a sample of 98 companies in Cyprus, the results indicate that customer involvement positively affects innovation capability. Furthermore, the innovation capability positively affects company’s performance. Additionally, a strong positive relationship is also indicated between customer involvement, innovation capability and customer relationship management. Finally, along with limitations and future research avenues, study findings and implications are discussed.

The traditional role of HR has gone through monumental shifts the last few decades. Human Resources professionals experienced a milestone transition from being the silent partners managing administrative tasks related to personnel, to being strategic partners, participating in board meetings, evaluating business’ strategical needs and planning for the implementation and optimization of human resources management. HR’s key activities include among others, the recruiting of required resources, talents attracting and retaining, engaging to the organization’s vision and more importantly, boosting employees’ empowerment in order to improve the team’s overall performance and competitiveness. The employee empowerment practices, have been extensively focused on the development of the individual in the organization through delegation and more participation in decision making. One of the major concerns of an HR department is how to achieve this empowerment so that the employees can contribute to their full potential, assuming that this will lead to gaining job satisfaction from their employment and circling back to retention. This study’s main aim was to investigate to what extent any of the practices related to the employee empowerment notion based on the existing literature, are followed in organizations operating in the private sector in Cyprus, and consequently if they have any impact on the employees’ perceived job satisfaction. A sample of 63 employees of both managerial and non-managerial levels, employed in almost all industries in the private sector in Cyprus was surveyed. The collected survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, correlations, and multivariate regression analysis. The findings showed that the relationships between employee empowerment and job satisfaction indeed exist. On the other hand, the relationship among some of the demographics variables and compared to both notions, were not statistically significant. Finally, the results of the regression analysis revealed that employee empowerment practices can indeed be significant predictors of job satisfaction, hence it is confirmed that they have an impact on it and furthermore, confirmed the study’s hypothesis.

With the technologically advance and the fact that organizations live in a dynamic environment with lots of uncertain scenarios, companies need to act fast and efficiently on managing their IT Projects in order to be aligned with the changes and for increasing businesses values and organizational competitiveness. The purpose of this study is to identify the Project Management Practices and the impact on SME competitiveness on IT Projects. This study identified the crucial project management practices and the project management methodology that can be adopted from SMEs in order to run a project and delivery it successfully for increasing competitiveness. In order to accomplish the purpose of this statement, previous studies have been read and connected with this thesis. Research showed that by ignoring Project Management Practices there are high possibilities that the projects will be failed and as a result, will harm businesses to achieve their business goal and increase their competitiveness. The Methodology part of this study was developed to gather the opinion of participants who work in organizations that handle IT projects either to deliver an end product to customers or for increasing their performance. The research study was designed based on a descriptive approach which falls in the deductive approach which aims to test a theory. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that this topic needs participants from different industries related to projects, a quantitative method has been used. Based on the information gathered from the literature review, an online questionnaire created and distributed to employees who are related to Information Technology field and their involvement in projects. The primary data were collected using the Likert scale, matrix, demographic and open questions. On the other hand, the secondary data were collected from relevant topics. Results show that 5 Project Management Practices play a crucial role when SMEs manage projects related to technology and it’s important to apply Project management methodology when an organization wants to be ahead and increase its competitiveness. The 5 practices that have been raised through this study are, Project Planning, Flexibility of Project Management Practices, Team Collaboration and Communication, the existence of the Project Manager, and the organizational culture and structure. However, at the end of this study recommendations are presented on how SMEs can approach an IT Project and which methodology will help them to include the Project Management Practices.

Οι τεχνολογικές εξελίξεις αλλά και η ανταγωνιστικότητα της αγοράς χαρακτηρίζουν την εποχή που ζούμε. Είναι πλέον επιτακτική η ανάγκη για τις βιομηχανίες να παρέχουν προϊόντα υψηλής ποιότητας με ανταγωνιστικές παροχές στους καταναλωτές ώστε να επιβιώσουν σε αυτό το έντονα ανταγωνιστικό περιβάλλον. Η ανάγκη αυτή των επιχειρήσεων και βιομηχανιών οδήγησε τους ειδικούς στη δημιουργία συστημάτων και πρακτικών για τη διαχείριση της ποιότητας στους οργανισμούς. Η παρούσα έρευνα έχει ως σκοπό να διερευνήσει τα συστήματα και τις πρακτικές που υπάρχουν και να εξετάσει το εύρος χρήσης αυτών στην Ελληνική βιομηχανία. Παράλληλα θα εξετάσει τα οφέλη που λαμβάνουν οι βιομηχανίες που εφαρμόζουν πρακτικές και συστήματα διαχείρισης ποιότητας. Επίσης ερευνά τη συμβολή των πρακτικών και συστημάτων διαχείρισης ποιότητας στην αύξηση της ανταγωνιστικότητας των βιομηχανιών αλλά και στη δημιουργία ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος. Παράγοντες που διερευνώνται ακόμα, είναι η επιρροή της ανώτατης διοίκησης στην εφαρμογή πρακτικών διαχείρισης ποιότητας στις βιομηχανίες αλλά και οι λόγοι για τους οποίους οι επιχειρήσεις δεν εφαρμόζουν πρακτικές διαχείρισης ποιότητας. Τα ευρήματα της έρευνας που παρουσιάζονται στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία, μπορούν να αποτελέσουν οδηγό για τις βιομηχανίες που μελετούν τις πρακτικές διαχείρισης ποιότητας και τις εφαρμογές τους στην Ελληνική βιομηχανία. Η έρευνα, μέσω της ανάλυσης των αποτελεσμάτων της και της αναφοράς των περιορισμών της μπορεί να αποτελέσει υπόβαθρο για μελλοντικές έρευνες και μελέτες.