Hierarchical structuring success factors of project stakeholder management in the construction organization

Abstract

Stakeholder management is essential for project success. Previous studies have explored project stakeholder management process and the success factors while the practice is unsatisfactory. Few have further explored the interrelationships of the success factors, which is obstructive to the in-depth understanding of project stakeholder management. This paper employs interpretative structural modeling (ISM) to develop the hierarchical structure and investigate the interrelationships of these success factors. Moreover, matrice d’impacts croises-multiplication applique a un classemen (MICMAC) analysis is conducted to identify the dependency and driving power of the success factors. ISM, as well as MICMAC analysis, provides a useful tool for practitioners to understand success factors for stakeholder management in construction. This study discovered that 6 factors among 16 factors have a weak dependent power but a strong driving power while 6 factors have a strong dependent power but a weak driving power. Managing stakeholders with social responsibility, keeping and promoting a good relationship, and communicating with and engaging stakeholder properly and frequently have been found to have the highest dependence on the other factors and have been placed on the top level of the hierarchical structure. The results facilitate the managers to gain an in-depth understanding of project stakeholder management and pay due attention to achieve the success. It can also be generalized to provide good references for investigation of success factors for project stakeholder management in other countries. Key words: Stakeholder management, project organization, success factors, interpretative structural modeling (ISM), matrice d’impacts croises-multiplication applique a un classemen (MICMAC) analysis, China.