Hakob Avetisyan

Presentation: The Human Factor: How to Consider it in Decision-Making for Successful Management

Abstract: Projects in all industries both public and private need proper management to be successful. Proper management may sound easy at a first glance, but in practice it has many difficulties as unforeseen events and actions that turn the project to a success or to a failure. To some extent the difficulties in the projects are related to the human factor as level of uncertainty or lack of experience, understanding or simply stated the lack of knowledge for certain situations. These are the voids in the management practice that if filled wisely may improve the potential of successfully project delivery. Depending on a project the issues may starts right from the initiation phase of the project and carry over the rest of the project phases. Stakeholders, technical issues, financing, contracting, risk management, negotiations, procurement are some of the important areas for a careful consideration. The question is: How to analyze these for informed decision-making and how to count for the human factor or preference in such decisions? This paper proposes the application of the management science techniques for quantitatively assessing and addressing the human factor impact on project management decision-making that can allow to plan in advance and maximize the chances of success.

PMI Talent Triangle: Strategic and Business Management

Biography: Hakob Gevorg Avetisyan, is an Associate Professor of Construction Engineering and Project Management at California State University Fullerton, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Avetisyan received his doctoral degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Project Management) from the University of Maryland (College Park, MD). Prior to the doctoral degree he received three MS and M.Eng degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering and in Environmental Policy and Planning. Since the first years of his academic journey he tackled research projects that addressed the real – world challenges of project management, environmental sustainability, energy, transportation and construction industries. He has number of publications in prestigious journals related to research in construction engineering and management, transportation and energy industries, port security and seismic analysis of bridges. Avetisyan with co-authors received a Best Paper Award from ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management for developing a decision support model for construction equipment selection. In 2015 Avetisyan proposed the idea of Construction Equipment Sustainability Index for informed decision-making. In 2019, Avetisyan proposed the Fragile method for managing projects. His primary research interests are in project management with emphasis in construction engineering and management, operations research, economics and security with a particular focus on developing optimization and game-theoretic models for processes in the construction, energy, and transportation industries, environmental sustainability, civil systems engineering, water/wastewater treatment and distribution, and system resilience/recovery.