Effective Stakeholder Management Research Articles

Barriers to Effective Communication and Stakeholder Management in Project Environments and How to Overcome These Barriers

This study sought to investigate the prominent barriers to effective communication and stakeholder management in project teams. Specifically, this study examined the role of management frameworks currently utilized by organizations and their efficiency in supporting team collaboration, conflict management, and stakeholder management in project environments. The study utilized a two-prong research methodology to identify and to analyze current literature related to the scope and objective of this study. The study first deployed an exploratory and unstructured literature review and then a structured literature review to identify the pool of relevant articles and content. A systematic review was then performed to reduce the body of literature down to the critical few that could serve as the basis for the study's analysis. The results revealed the inadequacies of management frameworks in promoting healthy relationships between project managers and stakeholders. Furthermore, the study exposes a gap between formal communications planning, the actual execution, the implementation of the plan, and the poor implementation of organizational processes. The results also show the common types of conflict, the positive and negative effects that these have on project environments, project success, and the critical success factors in stakeholder management. In addition to identifying barrier and shortcomings, this article sheds light on improvement areas that will have the most significant effect on project success. The literature synthesis reveals the importance of soft skill in communication management. The results suggest that much work remains to be done by the organization to train and prepare managers in building relationships and developing soft skills. The literature has demonstrated that perception, values, team cohesion, the willingness to share, trust, and healthy relationships are most influential in project success, but in practice, the latter is not applied. In conclusion, this area needs improvement and further investigation.

Barriers to Effective Stakeholder Management in the Delivery of Multifarious Infrastructure Projects (MIPs)

Abstract Effective Stakeholder Management (ESM) has been identified as one of the key requirements for successful project delivery by several scholars. This study, aimed at improving the chances of achieving successful Multifarious Infrastructure Projects’ (MIPs) delivery in Nigeria, was conducted through literature review, questionnaire survey and Relative Importance Index (RII) method of data analysis. The study identified 39 barriers to ESM in the delivery of MIPs in Nigeria, evaluated their respective impacts on projects’ delivery and ranked the barriers in ascending order of their respective impact levels. Failure to understand stakeholders’ needs and expectations, uncooperative attitude of stakeholders, failure to identify key stakeholders, failure to identify potential conflict areas, project manager’s poor knowledge of stakeholder management (SM), late identification of stakeholders, issuance of incorrect information to stakeholders, lack of stakeholder engagement/involvement, conflicts between stakeholders, misunderstanding of roles by stakeholders, lack of fairness and equity for all stakeholders and lack of continuity in SM process were ranked as the ten top barriers, in descending order, with highest levels of impact against ESM in MIPs delivery. The study also provided MIPs managers with an insight on the barriers to address/focus on in order to achieve ESM in the delivery of their projects. The study concluded that there was need to pay special attention to the above barriers due to their high impact level on ESM and improve current approaches to stakeholder management in MIPs delivery in order to improve the success rate of the projects. The study recommends development and effective implementation of an appropriate strategy for handling stakeholder management in the delivery of MIPs and other projects.

Exploring the dimensions of traditional authority influencing stakeholder management at the pre-construction stage of infrastructure projects

In many parts of the world, traditional authorities influence the pre-construction stakeholder management process on infrastructure projects. In this conceptual article, we sought to explore the dimensions of traditional authority that influence stakeholder management at the pre-construction stage, using the case of Ghana. Twenty-nine different issues related to traditional authority were identified through a systematic literature review. Then, through a narrative focus group discussion, the issues were validated, revised and condensed into 21 items. Through thematic analysis, the issues were clustered into four dimensions of traditional authority influences: power and role of traditional leadership; expectations of traditional leadership; project impacts on community resources; and impact of religious and cultural values. Through a further abstraction of the results, we identified six patterns of influence that emerge from the interaction between traditional authorities and other stakeholders, viz.: compromise; uncertainty; instability; power and role suppression; acculturation; and polarization. The findings provide a starting point for theorizing the influence of traditional authority on pre-construction stakeholder management. The findings also provide project managers with information for the development of practical strategies for managing the influence of traditional authorities to ensure an effective stakeholder management process at the pre-construction stage of infrastructure projects.

Board diversity and stakeholder management: the moderating impact of boards’ learning environment

PurposeThis paper aims to draw on insights from team learning theory and stakeholder theory to examine the influence of board composition on firms’ stakeholder management practices. The authors posit that board diversity is likely to enhance stakeholder management by shaping organizational goals by placing emphasis on the interests of a wide variety of stakeholders and providing firms with relevant knowledge to enhance their ability manage these interests. The authors further theorize on the moderating role of boards’ learning environment, which they conceptualized as an important complementary governance-related factor, likely to further boards’ ability to enhance stakeholder management.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test these predictions using the generalized estimating equations (GEE) technique on a panel of S&P 500 firms observed from 2001 to 2011.FindingsThe findings provide evidence that more diverse boards in terms of gender, nationality and race/ethnicity are generally associated with more effective stakeholder management. Further, the findings also suggest that boards’ co-working experience moderates the relationship between gender and national diversity and stakeholder management.Originality/valueWhile corporate governance research surveys many strategic implications of board composition, limited attention has been paid to the interplay of board characteristics with stakeholder management. This study is among the first to the authors’ knowledge to explore the impact of board diversity on stakeholder management using team learning research, thus drawing attention to the role of boards’ co-working experience in shaping their ability to impact firms’ outcomes.

Accountable Capitalism, Responsible Capitalism, and Political Capitalism

This paper compares three recent prescriptive proposals for practicing capitalism: Accountable Capitalism (Senator Elizabeth Warren), Responsible Capitalism (Professor R. Edward Freeman), and Political Corporate Social Responsibility (Professors Andreas Scherer and Guido Palazzo and colleagues). Warren’s Accountable Capitalism is a corporate governance reform proposal. Freeman’s Responsible Capitalism prescribes effective stakeholder management through entrepreneurial value creation. Political CSR (expanded here to Political Capitalism) is a prescription for democratization inside and outside of businesses and provision of public goods in instances of governmental incompetence. The rationale for this examination is the possibility of political crisis in the relationship between democracy and capitalism.

Stakeholder management in PPP projects: external stakeholders’ perspective

PurposeThis paper focusses on external stakeholders’ perspective of stakeholder management in public–private partnerships (PPP) projects within the context of developing countries where public opposition to PPP projects is prevalent. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key enablers to PPP projects’ success from the perspective of external stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from two case studies via semi-structured interviews in two PPP project locations in Nigeria. In total, 14 external stakeholders comprising community leaders, trade unionists and human right activist participated in the research.FindingsFive key enablers of external stakeholder management were identified. These are as follows: the choice of project location; transparency of the internal stakeholders; timing of stakeholder engagement; knowledge of PPP; and relationship with internal stakeholders.Originality/valueExternal stakeholders’ perspective of stakeholder management in PPP projects within the context of developing countries new to PPP has been established. The practical implications of the five enablers can be used by policy makers and industry professionals to ensure effective stakeholder management of PPP projects.

The Transport for NSW Transport Network Architecture Model

AbstractThe vision of Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is documented in publicly available strategies and plans. To achieve this vision, the Asset Standards Authority (ASA), within TfNSW, has led the development of a Transport Network Architecture (TNA) model, a model that integrates the multiple strategic documents into a structured, visual, relational format that can be used consistently across the cluster. This model captures information from the strategies to form the enterprise perspective and traces this information to a concept operational perspective.The TNA is therefore a conceptual model that represents the structure and behaviour of the transport system. The aim of the TNA is to provide a basis for consistent asset planning and procurement for complex transport project. The different perspectives and views in the TNA allow a particular user to define and bridge the link between the business needs and requirements (i.e. problem domain) and the system needs (i.e. solution domain). Through effective stakeholder management, the framework has therefore captured the interest of transport planners and project delivery teams to assist them in various engineering related activities in delivering highly complex transport projects.

Critical success factors for local government project stakeholder management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective project stakeholder management at the local government level in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study used data from questionnaires administered to project stakeholders for identifying and ranking CSFs.FindingsThe study identified the top five CSFs for stakeholder management at the local government level in Ghana to be: communicating with and engaging stakeholders; identifying stakeholders properly; formulating a clear project mission statement; keeping and promoting good relationships; and analyzing stakeholder conflicts and coalitions.Research limitations/implicationsGeneralization of the findings should be done with caution since the scope of data collection was limited to district assemblies in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Nevertheless the results of the study are, however, useful and indicative and can lend direction to future research.Practical implicationsThis paper has contributed to the growing body of knowledge related to CSFs for local government projects. The results should help understand factors which are of priority to stakeholders when assessing their involvement in projects. Further, the findings could form the basis for competency development of local government personnel in specific areas where improvements are required.Originality/valueThe paper identified CSFs for effective project stakeholder management at the local level. Most studies on critical factors in project environments have focused on CSFs and project success and thus this study delves into an area which has not received much attention in the literature.

Using structural equation modelling (SEM) to understand the relationships among critical success factors (CSFs) for stakeholder management in construction

PurposeStakeholder management plays a significant role in successfully delivering construction projects. However, being able to carry out effective stakeholder management in construction is contingent upon understanding the interrelationships among critical success factors (CSFs) for stakeholder management in construction and how they are related to project success (PS). This would enable the persons responsible for stakeholder management to know the logical process for addressing the CSFs in order to get stakeholder management right. The understanding of this relationship has not been addressed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interrelationships between the CSFs for stakeholder management and PS in construction.Design/methodology/approachFrom an extensive literature review, 23 CSFs for stakeholder management in construction were identified. A conceptual structural equation model (SEM) of the relationships between CSFs was developed (including measurement and structural models) using the groupings of the CSFs for stakeholder management in construction. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from construction industry practitioners. The data so collected were analysed using SEM in analysis of moment structures (AMOS).FindingsThe SEM analysis of data collected resulted in the best fitting measurement model comprising 16 CSFs as indicators of four latent variables, namely, stakeholder characteristics and project characteristics (SCPC); stakeholder analysis (SA); stakeholder dynamics (SD); and stakeholder engagement/empowerment (SE). Furthermore, it was found that only SE has a direct positive impact on PS. The other three constructs SCPC, SA and understanding SD collectively impact on PS through the construct, SE.Research limitations/implicationsThe research reported in this paper was carried out in the UK; hence, the findings may have portrayed the UK construction professionals’ opinion. However, the theoretical principles on which the research was based are general and similar research could be replicated in different countries whose construction procurement processes and industries are structured like those of the UK or otherwise.Practical implicationsThe main contribution of this study to existing knowledge is an empirical evidence of the interrelationships among the CSFs for stakeholder management in construction through their latent variables which is portrayed in the best fitting structural model showing the relationships between the constructs of CSFs for stakeholder management and PS. This should serve as a guide to construction project management team or responsible professionals for undertaking stakeholder management in construction projects.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to theory by empirically identifying the interrelationships among the CSFs for stakeholder management linking to PS which will serve as a guide to construction professionals.

A systematic literature review on software measurement programs

Software measurement programs (MPs) are an important means for understanding, evaluating, managing, and improving software processes, products and resources. However, implementing successful MPs still remains a challenge. To make a comprehensive review of the studies on MPs for bringing into light the existing measurement planning models and tools used for implementing MPs,the accumulated knowledge on the success/failure factors of MPs and mitigation strategies to address their challenges. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted. In total, 65primary studies were reviewed and analyzed. We identified 35 measurement planning models and 11 associated tools, most of which either proposed extensions or improvements for goal based approaches. The identified success factors include (a) organizational adoption of MP, (b) integration of MP with SDLC, (c) synchronization of MP with SPI and (d) design of MP. The mostly mentioned mitigation strategies for addressing challenges are effective change management and measurement stakeholder management, automated tool support and incorporation of engineering mechanisms for designing sustainable, effective, scalable and extendible MPs, and measurement expertise and standards development. Most of the success factors and mitigation strategies have interdependencies. Therefore, for successful MP implementation, software organizations should consider these factors in combination and make a feasibility study at the very beginning.

Developing Transport Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa through Public–Private Partnerships: Policy Practice and Implications

In contemporary times, Public–Private Partnership (PPP) in transport infrastructure has gained considerable attention in developing regions following its success in the developed countries. However, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is among the developing regions with few transport PPP projects and among the regions with high number of failed projects. Meanwhile the region's transport infrastructure need far exceeds it current provision. This paper therefore aims to examine the project experiences (success and failure factors) of three highly profiled transport PPP projects, namely the Lekki toll road concession project (Nigeria), N4 toll road (South Africa/Mozambique) and Port of Maputo (Mozambique) in order to develop policy measures for effective future implementation. The experiences of the three projects show that transport PPP policy is indeed feasible in SSA. However, to realise its full applicability, proper policy actions and measures must be carefully observed and these include effective and efficient stakeholder management, transparent and competitive tendering process, high participation of local investors, stable macro-economic conditions and strong government commitment and regulatory framework. The projects experiences and policy actions developed are impactful in accelerating transport infrastructure development through PPP approach in SSA. Hence it is hoped that policy-makers and practitioners would be informed on the key strategies to employ in implementing future projects.

The key to carving out a high corporate reputation based on innovation: corporate social responsibility

Purpose– The purpose of this study is to analyze how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects a firm’s value added. Specifically, through a combination of Stakeholder Theory and specific concept within the Innovation Theory framework (called Social Innovation Capital), this work explores the relation between effective stakeholder management and how marketable innovation production affects a company’s possibility of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. By doing so, new insights on CSR management to gain competitive advantage are provided.Design/methodology/approach– The present study analyzes the role of a firm’s international presence, and the company’s social commitment initiatives as drivers of the enterprise’s corporate intangible assets. A company’s reputation has also been considered as a control variable. To achieve this goal, the Spanish market was analyzed. Specifically, those Spanish companies who had the highest reputation in the global reputation pulse and showed the highest level of brand awareness, according to the latest report published by the Forum of Leading Spanish Brands, were considered.Findings– Findings show that companies including their stakeholders’ interests in the knowledge-creation and innovation process are able to enhance their intangible assets and thus the capitalization of such knowledge. Similarly, firms with international presence have a large number of global stakeholders, which also evidences a positive relation with its intangible assets. By honoring the social contract, firms benefit from stakeholders while contributing to social welfare, creating a win–win situation.Originality/value– This study categorizes how intangible assets can be increased through stakeholder’s involvement and firm’s international presence. Consequently, researchers studying business strategy can incorporate these variables as key elements in strategic planning. Scholars in fields of information systems, operations management, knowledge or supply chain management can also evaluate the inclusion of corporate social responsibility into their studies to evaluate how it reflects on tangible assets, production process, supply chain management or the knowledge production life cycle. Moreover, this work illustrates the convenience of using Innovation Theory in conjunction with the Stakeholder Theory to analyze a firm’s intangible assets enhancement.

Stakeholder Management: A Universal Strategic Health Services Management Approach to Unlock a Profitable Return on Investment

There have been sustained global policy and fiscal pressures for businesses, including health care services to demonstrate unique customer-oriented entrepreneurship capabilities in terms of marketing and innovativeness, influenced by the recent global financial crisis, leading to business closures, budgetary shortfalls, and constant operational challenges for survival. For several health care managers, this entails effectively managing the increasing influence of active and powerful stakeholders to achieve a competitive advantage in terms of productive and allocative efficiency over customer-driven results and innovativeness. A focus on value addition by itself is a precursor of effective stakeholder management, clinician leadership model, and a decentralized activity based management, which integrates customer values from basic and expected services to desired and unexpected services as well as combining product quality and high quality customer services needed to usher a competitive advantage to organizations through cost leadership or product differentiation. However, a stakeholder management tool that is universally applicable across all health care business entities is still work in progress. This paper debated upon relevant previous literature on stakeholder management as a central feature for customerdriven business practices, for implementation in form of a universal stakeholder management tool, in order to advance sound entrepreneurship capabilities that support dynamic high quality customer care-driven health care and innovation.

Stakeholder management studies in mega construction projects: A review and future directions

The complex and uncertain nature of mega construction projects (MCP) require an effective stakeholder management (SM) approach to accommodate conflicting stakeholder interests. Previous reviews regarding SM in construction sector are generic as their attentions have been placed on relatively small scale projects. A systematic review on SM studies in relation to MCP seems to be lacking. This paper analyzes the latest research development of this domain by reviewing selected articles published from 1997 to 2014. Four major research topics are identified: “stakeholder interests and influences”, “stakeholder management process”, “stakeholder analysis methods” and “stakeholder engagement”. This study reveals that SM approaches in MCP are subject to national context of the project, indicating a need to identify the impact of national culture on this discipline. Moreover, traditional stakeholder analysis techniques are widely adopted in MCP notwithstanding their weaknesses; therefore a social network approach for managing stakeholder interrelationships in these projects is needed.

Descriptive, instrumental and strategic approaches to corporate social responsibility

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether the descriptive, instrumental, and strategic approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) are related to corporate performance (CP) and to determine the nature of this relationship, if any.Design/methodology/approachUsing data collected by KLD Research Analytics and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the study examines the association between companies' choice of approaches to the CSR and CSR‐CP relationship.FindingsResults of this study indicate that each of the three approaches to CSR – descriptive, instrumental, and strategic – are associated with CP, but in different ways. While the instrumental approach to CSR has a positive association with short‐term measures of CP, the strategic approach is associated with short‐term and medium‐term measures of CP, and the descriptive approach has no definite association with CP at all.Originality/valueThis study integrates the prevailing justifications for CSR with the taxonomy of approaches to CSR – instrumental, descriptive and strategic – suggested in the literature. It has been argued that these frameworks influence managers' conception of what constitutes effective stakeholder management and make a difference in how decision makers in an organization think and act in crafting the company's social initiatives and in deciding what the company aims to achieve through these initiatives. By examining the association between companies' approaches to CSR and stakeholder management of the CSR‐CP relationship, the study offers another perspective of the ongoing debate in the social accounting literature about the accountability relationships between business and society.

Upward Influence to Overcome Hierarchical Authority Expectations: A New Approach for Stakeholder Management

Abstract: Critical to project success is effective stakeholder management. This paper presents a challenge for the project manager who uses traditional approaches to manage mid-level stakeholders in an organization. Dual roles of a mid-level stakeholder (as a stakeholder of a project and as an agent of the corporate) may cause problems that would result in difficulties for project managers in identifying the stakeholder’s attributes and overcoming hiera rchical authority expectation. However, the dual roles of the stakeholder result in its weakness in the project-stakeholder relationship. Can a project leverage its strategic role for effective upward influence by linking project objectives to corporate strategic objectives? To address this research question, case study method was used to gain a deeper understanding of mid- level stakeholder’s salience. This research proposes an upward influence strategy to embed a project-stakeholder relationship in a hierarchical stakeholder network. Keywords: upward influence strategy, mid-level stakeholder, stakeholder network, corporate strategy

Evaluating production improvement opportunities in a chemical plant: a case study using discrete event simulation

This paper presents a case study on using a discrete event simulation-based approach to evaluate the proposed capacity expansion and reliability improvement opportunities at a chemical plant of The Dow Chemical Company. The simulation model was successfully used to evaluate the effect of batch size increase and automation of raw material loading on the plant productivity. In addition, the modelling work identified critical failures that were significant contributors towards production loss. Despite the strong capabilities of simulation for modelling complex system dynamics and uncertainties, there are challenges associated with use of simulation. Simulation projects for such complex systems are typically long term, and require effective stakeholder management techniques for successful execution. We discuss some Six Sigma-based best practices that aid in successful execution of such projects and for ensuring the sustainability of simulation models for evaluating future improvement efforts.

Effective communication in contaminated risk management

The process of managing contaminated land projects is complex and the necessary skill set required to communicate contaminated land risk has become extensive. The communication of contaminated land risk has become more important as a result of greater pressure placed on the redevelopment of brownfield sites, easier access to basic environmental information, increased public concern about human health risk and possible harm to controlled waters, and less trust that risk is communicated fully and honestly to stakeholders. These drivers have culminated in the task of effective communication associated with contaminated land becoming more onerous but a detailed consideration of their impact on stakeholders is critical to the successful delivery of remediation projects. The necessary skills required for the effective communication of contaminated land risk are considered. These skills are appropriate for contaminated land consultants, planners, civil engineers, specialist contractors and land owners who have to communicate risk issues to a lay audience. The part IIA Manywells landfill site is provided as an appropriate case study, in which effective communication and stakeholder management has been successfully implemented.

A typology of operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement

Stakeholder analysis and engagement are the main tasks in stakeholder management. To identify operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement, six interviews and a questionnaire survey were conducted in Hong Kong, and an additional 15 interviews were held in Australia. The main finding is a typology of practical approaches for practitioners in construction. A total of 30 approaches are comprised in the typology, and they are classified by application. To test the usefulness of the typology, action research is applied to two real‐life projects in Australia. The implication is that the selection of the approaches is an art and a contingency approach as well, requiring practitioners’ judgments. Each approach has its strengths and limitations, so the most appropriate way for effective stakeholder management is to use a combination of elements from each approach as circumstances dictate. This study can serve as a reference for the systematic consideration of the project management team about the operational approaches for stakeholder management in construction projects.

A project lifecycle perspective on stakeholder influence strategies in global projects

Summary Global projects affect and are affected by multiple stakeholders with differing interests and demands. Recently, there has been increased pressure for global projects to be more environmentally and socially responsible. A project creates a dynamic context for stakeholder management and stakeholder behavior because the project moves through different phases during its lifecycle. By adopting a lifecycle perspective on secondary stakeholders’ behavior, we develop a set of propositions that increase our understanding of the potential of secondary stakeholders to influence the project management's decision making during the different phases of the project lifecycle. Ultimately, a better understanding of secondary stakeholders’ influence behavior during the project lifecycle enables the use of more effective project stakeholder management approaches.