Generation Z is arriving in the workforce. Do these youngsters have the skills and traits to fit project teams? This study reviews the literature concerning project management competencies and the traits that are associated with Generation Z. To deepen the understanding of its members (Gen Zers) traits, we explore the self-awareness of their profile, strengths and weaknesses with an empirical study. We used a mixed-method approach, implementing a survey on a sample of 211 college students about to enter the labor market. Comparing our survey results with the literature, we identified differences that reveal some of the lack of awareness of Gen Zers about their traits. Further analysis also revealed a significant correlation between the most highlighted Generation Z traits and essential project management soft skills, pointing to Generation Z as a promissory asset in the project management field. However, other essential project management (PM) soft skills were not grounded in personality traits. Our findings, namely the lack of awareness and association results, suggest the need for further research on educational approaches and re-thinking and targeting education and training policies that could strengthen Generation Z soft skills. Our results also suggest reflections about whether the Gen Zers traits fit the PM competencies sought by organizations.

This study supports the proposition that sustainability’s integration into Quality Management Systems (QMS) could be a viable pathway to the development of the Emergency paradigm, in which leadership plays a crucial role. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was performed in order to deepen leadership’s relationship with Quality Management (QM) from an evolutionary perspective. An exploratory survey was then conducted to assess quality managers’ perceptions of sustainability’s integration into QMS and their leadership styles, using the 5X Short Leader Form MLQ instrument. The results indicate that leadership is a critical element of QMS performance, enhancing transformational leadership, which appears to be the dominant self-perceived style of the quality managers who participated. Nevertheless, these practitioners recognise the difficulties in committing all employees to the sustainability journey. The theoretical and managerial implications give rise to this work. The SLR results could be a useful database to support future QM and Leadership research. The organisations could follow the suggested pathway to evolve their QMS to support solutions to some of the current challenges. At the same time, quality managers could reflect on their future professional challenges. This work has taken a step forward, indicating sustainable quality management systems as a viable pathway to explore QM knowledge regarding the Emergency paradigm, and thus enhancing leadership’s role.

Companies need to develop more sustainable management models to support a strategy focused on the environment and society, preventing the sole ambition to maximize economic profits. Several specific tools and frameworks have been developed for the implementation of sustainability management. However, the isolated adoption of new management practices could increase bureaucracy and constrain the development of an effective and systematic sustainability strategy. Based on the development of four case studies of relevant companies based in Portugal, this research presents a cyclical process with the structures, inputs and outputs, and roles in embodying sustainability in Integrated Management Systems (IMS). The originality of the work lies in the level of integration. Beyond identifying interconnection areas, it also specifies the Management Systems Standards (MSS) requirements in each area, assigning different roles in the integration process: drivers, efficient enablers, pathways, and evaluators. These four roles promote the claimed integration in a systematic cyclical process, plan–do–check–act (PDCA), to assist the consolidation of sustainability management. This research reinforces the added value of the IMS. It expands its scope, helping companies implement sustainability effectively and systematically, resulting in the presentation of Conceptual Sustainable Management Systems Standards (SMSS).

An essential aspect of higher education institutions’ academic curricula for engineering courses is the students’ industrial internship programs. In the literature, it is well accepted that such programs provide valuable learning outcomes and increase the graduates’ employment prospects. Thus, it is paramount to evaluate the internship programs’ quality to identify opportunities to improve their design and implementation. However, that evaluation typically depends on self-designed academic assessment surveys of questionable validity. The purpose of this paper is to assess engineering students’ perceptions of their internship experiences. For that purpose, the validation of a recently adapted version of the Work Experience Questionnaire (WEQ) was carried out on a sample of 447 engineering students that participated in industrial internship programs offered by Portuguese public universities and polytechnic schools. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to confirm the suitability of the model proposed by the WEQ’s authors on this study’s sample. The psychometric qualities were evaluated through convergent and discriminant validity. The results showed that the model fit the sample well, and convergent and discriminant validity was established. The general competencies subscale was the most important for the participants—specifically, the competency of solving problems. Differences concerning the WEQ and gender, company size, and compensation were found and discussed. This study provides researchers in the field with a new tool validated explicitly for engineering students.

Balancing energy demand and supply will become an even greater challenge considering the ongoing transition from traditional fuel to electric vehicles (EV). The management of this task will heavily depend on the pace of the adoption of light-duty EVs. Electric vehicles have seen their market share increase worldwide; the same is happening in Portugal, partly because the government has kept incentives for consumers to purchase EVs, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequent shift to EVs entails various challenges for the distribution network, including coping with the expected growing demand for power. This article addresses this concern by presenting a case study of an area comprising 20 municipalities in Northern Portugal, for which battery electric vehicles (BEV) sales and their impact on distribution networks are estimated within the 2030 horizon. The power required from the grid is estimated under three BEV sales growth deterministic scenarios based on a daily consumption rate resulting from the combination of long- and short-distance routes. A Monte Carlo computational simulation is run to account for uncertainty under severe EV sales growth. The analysis is carried out considering three popular BEV models in Portugal, namely the Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model 3, and Renault Zoe. Their impacts on the available power of the distribution network are calculated for peak and off-peak hours. The results suggest that the current power grid capacity will not cope with demand increases as early as 2026. The modeling approach could be replicated in other regions with adjusted parameters.