CONCEPTUAL STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Stakeholder management is an important part of management notion particularly in project management today. In recent years, the concept of stakeholder grows comprehensively among academics and professionals. Despite the widespread stakeholder management, the theory is not straightforward to understand and apply. One of the reasons is the number of theories in literature. Literature reviews reveal the following as stakeholder management theories: normative, instrumental, descriptive, convergent stakeholder and social science stakeholder theories. The research employs existing literature to develop a contemporary understanding of stakeholder management theory of stakeholder management. This paper contributes to the stakeholder management theory by presenting the new concept of stakeholder management theory using two cultures (Western and Chinese cultures in Africa). These management approaches can be classified as Western and Chinese models. The Western model is contractual by nature, while the Chinese model is characterized by informality (guanxi). The new stakeholder management theory called "Accustom theory". The new stakeholder management theory developed-"Accustom theory"-had a lot to do with the stakeholder management in project management. It deals with hard skills, soft skills, and the power structure skills. This paper contributes to stakeholder management theory by presenting accustom theory as a new perspective of stakeholder management theory. The new theory aims to improve the practice of project management by presenting how formality, participation and communication levels in projects improve stakeholders' satisfaction.