Project Organizations' Roles in Using Social Media for External Stakeholder Engagement

Abstract

Empirical examples have demonstrated that project organisations increasingly use social media for engaging external stakeholders. However, very few studies in the field of project management have yet explored this topic. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how project organisations can use social media for engaging external stakeholders. The chapter begins with an introduction to the phenomenon, where we outline our objective, research questions and define the concepts of stakeholder engagement, external stakeholders and social media in the context of projects. After the introduction, we analyse previous research on stakeholder engagement and stakeholder communication to develop a conceptual framework (a two-by-two matrix) of the engagement approaches and communication modes that project organisations can adopt when using social media for external stakeholder engagement. The developed framework includes a typology of the roles that project organisations can adopt (Disengager, Informer, Communicator, Enfranchiser – DICE model) and related uses for social media. We then analyse the implications of the roles on external stakeholders’ engagement and on value creation and distribution in projects. We conclude this chapter by suggesting ideas for future research, including potential research questions to be mobilised forward in studying the role of social media in external stakeholder engagement.