The project sponsor role and benefits realisation: more than 'just doing the day job'

The project sponsor role has been identified in both guidance and research as being a key factor affecting project success. However, there is still a knowledge gap in terms of how the project sponsor role is experienced and understood by the senior managers undertaking the role, including their understanding of their accountability for benefits realisation. Phenomenography is ideally suited to address these issues, and was used to explore project sponsor experiences at a hospital in England. One conception of the project sponsor role was ‘just doing the day job’, which is contrary to project sponsorship guidance, but is consistent with some of the evidence on the role in practice. Using the interactionist perspective from role theory, it is suggested that seniority enables ‘role making’ individuals holding such views to conflate it with their substantive position. This contrasts with the ‘role taking’ conception of the sponsor as ‘wearing two different hats’.