Mark Elliott wins APM North East branch Dissertation Prize

Mark Elliott was presented with the APM North East branch Dissertation Prize on Friday 7 July 2017, by Dr Allan Osborne on behalf of the APM NE Branch Committee.  After twenty plus years of working in a range of North East secondary schools as a teacher of Economics and an Assistant Head Teacher, Mark decided to take a career break with a view to pursuing a new challenge. 

This resulted in Mark enrolling on the MSc Project Management programme at Northumbria University, which the APM North East Branch has supported for over a decade.  Since graduation, Mark has been appointed as a Capital Development and Project Manager for Northumberland County Council.

Mark’s dissertation, which adopted a case study methodology, explored the relationship between project owner and project culture within one of the UK's largest ship repair and conversion companies. 

His findings indicated market culture was a predominant factor and the project culture experienced by private- and public-sector employees is markedly different.  The implications of Mark’s study, for those organizations utilizing projects, is that consideration should be given to the ownership and governance of a project. 

The cultural dimension for projects owned by public-sector interests are more likely to experience a stronger association with the hierarchical culture type and, therefore, the adoption of formal rules and procedures and tight scrutiny of projects is an expectation of public-sector project owners.

 Dr Allan Osborne, who is a Principal Lecturer in Project Management at Northumbria University, said, ‘Mark was as exemplary student.  He proactively engaged in all aspects of learning and was supportive towards his peers.  My colleagues and I are delighted Mark has graduated and received the APM NE Branch Dissertation Prize, which is well deserved.  We wish him well with his future career in Project Management.’