Paper and Presentation: Project Stakeholder Management and Engagement: An Analysis of the Drivers of an Evolving Subject Discipline
Abstract: Project stakeholder management and engagement is now acknowledged as a critical success factor on virtually every project. Its importance and thematic popularity is self-evident from the voluminous body of literature which has been written on the subject, especially since the advent of the new millennium. Also by the increasing attention and consideration projects are according to their stakeholders, both primary and secondary, whose support is seen as critical for enhancing the performance of projects as well as for reducing threats, existential and other, to them. However, little to nothing appears to be known about the key underlying factors – or ‘drivers’ – which over time in academic and practitioner circles have precipitated this tremendous surge in interest in project stakeholders and in seeking out ways and means of managing and engaging them in the best possible way.
This research attempts to bridge this knowledge vacuum. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the project stakeholder literature from academic and other sources, through several discussions and interviews with project managers and staffers, and drawing on their own years-long experience with projects, the authors have identified nine distinct fundamental ‘drivers’. These drivers collectively are the reason why stakeholders have emerged as the prime force to be reckoned with on projects in the past few decades, especially in large and complex projects as in construction and civil infrastructure development. Though this research offers little in terms of practical guidance for project decision-makers and is actually more of historical interest it nevertheless clearly and convincingly shows why stakeholders have gradually become so crucial for projects and hence the need and justification for their effective management and engagement.
PMI Talent Triangle Skill: Leadership
Paper and Presentation: The Project Management and Engagement Strategy Spectrum: An Empirical Exploration
Abstract: Project stakeholders are now universally acknowledged as a prime critical success factors on every complex project. Consequently – and especially for a project’s key decision-makers – a profound knowledge of practical strategies and methods which can be applied to effectively and efficiently manage and engage their stakeholders, both primary and secondary, is essential. Doing so can reduce threats, in particular severe and existential ones, to their projects on the one hand while helping the projects benefit significantly from the sustained support, encouragement and goodwill of their stakeholders on the other.
The experience with large projects in the construction and civil infrastructure development field shows that in general much ignorance currently still prevails about how stakeholders should be managed and engaged appropriately. The numerous observed and often avoidable conflicts which arise and linger on over time between projects and their stakeholders and the frequent and surprising lack of proactive stakeholder management and engagement on many projects is clearly indicative of this knowledge deficiency in practitioner circles. This deficiency appears to have been rarely addressed systematically and in-depth in the project stakeholder literature.
Through an analysis of extensive available documentation collected from diverse sources in the public domain on over fifty on-going and completed high-profile construction and civil infrastructure development projects across the globe, the authors have explored a broad spectrum of stakeholder management and engagement strategies. In particular, the authors have focused their attention on innovative and effective strategies designed to maximize benefit for the projects and their stakeholders and to thus ensure attainment of a ‘win-win’ situation for them both. Through their research, the authors hope to motivate and assist key project decision-makers to significantly improve the quality of their interaction with their stakeholders through pursuit of sound and tested strategies which serve the interests of their own projects while simultaneously ensuring that the legitimate interests of their stakeholders are duly taken into consideration.
PMI Talent Triangle Skill: Leadership
Biography: Dr. Aurangzeb Khan holds a PhD in public administration and a Diplom in Business administration from German universities. He has served on the faculty of his university since March 2005 during which time he designed and launched his country’s first degree program in project management. His areas of interest are project stakeholder management and engagement, and project monitoring, evaluation and control.
