Purpose: This study aims to address a critical gap in project management literature by identifying the preferred methods for developing behavioral project management competencies (BPMC). While BPMC are essential for successful project execution, little empirical evidence exists on how these competencies are best developed from the perspective of practicing professionals in project management, especially comparing generations. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on a two-phase approach. First, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines to identify and synthesize studies focused on project management competencies development methods. Second, an empirical study was carried out using a structured questionnaire distributed across 72 countries. The survey included 988 participants from four generational cohorts, evaluating their preferences for five common BPMC development methods. Statistical analysis, including mixed ANOVA, was employed to examine generational differences and method preferences. Findings: The findings reveal a clear practitioner preference for mentoring/coaching and on-the-job training as the most effective methods for developing behavioral competencies. Traditional lectures, e-learning and simulations were consistently rated lower across all generations. Preferences showed remarkable consistency among Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z, indicating a shared understanding of the value of experiential and socially grounded learning. Originality/value: This study empirically explores BPMC development methods using a large, diverse and globally distributed sample. It not only fills a decade-long empirical gap in literature but also offers practical insights for educators, HR professionals and project management associations aiming to align training methods with real-world needs.

The aim of this experimental research was to explore if the future HR managers are susceptible to the base rate neglect (BRN) bias and if the visual presentation of the base rates improves their reasoning. The BRN bias is a tendency to disregard a priori probabilities that are explicitly given for the class of observed objects. In this study, BRN is seen as the case of decision-making bias in the work-related context. Although it is inevitable part of the decision-making processes concerning employees`, the topic is not sufficiently studied. A total of 65 participants, enrolled in the master studies of HRM, were subjected to 4 different types of BRN tasks, in which five different HR activities were described. They were varied within subjects, representativeness of description, and format of base rate. Within each task there were five different situations that make 20 tasks in total. The two-way repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that the proportion of biased answers was significantly higher on the representative tasks when the tasks presented visually, with no interaction between representativeness and format of task. Results are in line with previous studies that observed an effect of BRN on decision-making process. Yet, unexpectedly, visual presentation of base rates did not facilitate unbiased reasoning implying that some other form of presentation might be more appropriate for the task.

Today’s organizations are highly responsive to external changes, which they also demand from their employees. All employees need competencies to respond to Industry 4.0, the green business economy, and post-COVID-19 work circumstances and to manage sustainable careers. One way of doing so is to take active part in reskilling projects and be ready for a career shift, which we believe can be foreseen in people’s devotion to sustainable careers and can ensure the sustainability of the whole reskilling project. With the presumption that the concept of sustainable careers can be captured in terms of the concept of readiness for a career shift, this study aims to explore the potential of the scale of readiness for career shifts to predict participants’ success in reskilling projects (in the context of IT professions). The research was conducted on 336 candidates who applied for Java and PHP programming positions and had no previous knowledge or experience in the field. The results show that the scale of readiness for career shifts has acceptable metric characteristics, and canonical discriminant analysis confirmed that the overall score can be used to predict outcomes in the reskilling project, while predictions based on single indicators were rather ambiguous. Therefore, the scale can be used as a tool in the process of selecting reskilling candidates (at least in professional transitions in the domain of IT), but further research on the topic might shed more light on the concept.

Neuroeconomics shows that one of the brain's functions is to assess the benefits and costs of each decision, so that all decisions can be viewed as economic. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is used to measure and map brain activity. These signals can be monitored in the brain during various tasks, including learning, decision-making, and social interactions. The brain functions as an efficient system with limited energy, and therefore develops mechanisms for optimal reward harvesting in accordance with internal states and the external environment. Economic games are used as experimental models for studying social behavior. The paper considers two games: the ultimatum game and the trust game. The ultimatum game suggests that people not only maximize profits, but also value fairness as a social norm. The trust game focuses on trust and reciprocity. The results of research on brain functioning in ultimatum and trust games, confirmed by MRI, are summarized, and reveal that the human brain uses the same evaluation and learning mechanisms for both material outcomes and abstract social norms such as fairness and reciprocity. The key neural mechanisms in decision-making are the reward prediction error signal and fictive errors. In addition, the differences in decision-making depending on who the partner is in the game, or on the speed of decisionmaking, are described in detail. Finally, the Fehr–Schmidt model and the Cox modified reciprocity model are compared. The paper explains the brain functioning that is common to all people, and further research leads to the examination of individual differences between neurotypical individuals, as well as neurodivergent individuals and individuals with mental disorders.