An overview of previous studies in stakeholder management and its implications for construction industry

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of previous studies in the field of stakeholder management, and propose implications for the construction industry.Design/methodology/approach &ndash; Three major databases are searched: ABI, EI CompendexWeb, and ISI web of knowledge. Papers are searched on topic by using the keywords of &ldquo;stakeholder management&rdquo;, &ldquo;management of stakeholders&rdquo; and &ldquo;management of stakeholder&rdquo;. A brief review of the abstracts and conclusions of these papers is conducted to filter out the irrelevant and/or duplicate papers. After filtering, 159 articles with content relevant to stakeholder management are selected for analysis.Findings &ndash; An overview of previous studies reveals that research interest in stakeholder management has turned to the descriptive approach. Through a critical review of stakeholder management process, three main problems of previous studies are identified: very few methods and tools are available to identify all stakeholders and their interests; limited studies involve the change management about the stakeholders\u27 influence and relationship; and few studies are capable of reflecting the influence of the entire relationship network in practice.Research limitations/implications &ndash; Two implications for the construction industry are suggested: establish a practical framework for managing stakeholders; and apply social network theory (SNT) in developing a stakeholder relationship model.Originality/value &ndash; The overview and implications lead to new knowledge and an improved understanding of the management of multiple stakeholders in construction projects. The perspective of SNT avoids the deficiency of Freeman\u27s dyadic ties model, and the project managers can make decisions in response to the stakeholder behaviours according to the entire relationship.<br /

Critical success factors for stakeholder management: construction practitioners\u27 perspectives

Although various factors have been identified as important for accomplishing successful stakeholder management, few studies appear to have undertaken a comparative analysis of practitioners&rsquo; views on the relative importance of critical success factors (CSFs) for stakeholder management in construction projects. In an attempt to fill this research gap, a questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong to collect the opinions of construction practitioners regarding the relative importance of CSFs for stakeholder management. Findings from this study show that all 15 selected CSFs are regarded as critical by most respondents for the success of stakeholder management in construction projects. The factor regarding social responsibilities is considered most important for managing stakeholders. Although correlations between CSFs and types of projects and organizations were statistically significant, these were not particularly strong. Also, even though there is a general consensus on the rankings of the CSFs among different respondents, the detailed pairwise comparisons actually show the existence of a few differences in perceptions on the relative importance of the CSFs. Therefore, the working priorities of project managers for managing stakeholders are context specific, depending on the nature, client sector, and cost of the project, and also on their organizations and management levels in the organization. These findings should help project managers become more aware of their responsibilities and the relative importance of issues for management stakeholders.<br /

Critical success factors for stakeholder management: construction practitioners\u27 perspectives

Although various factors have been identified as important for accomplishing successful stakeholder management, few studies appear to have undertaken a comparative analysis of practitioners&rsquo; views on the relative importance of critical success factors (CSFs) for stakeholder management in construction projects. In an attempt to fill this research gap, a questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong to collect the opinions of construction practitioners regarding the relative importance of CSFs for stakeholder management. Findings from this study show that all 15 selected CSFs are regarded as critical by most respondents for the success of stakeholder management in construction projects. The factor regarding social responsibilities is considered most important for managing stakeholders. Although correlations between CSFs and types of projects and organizations were statistically significant, these were not particularly strong. Also, even though there is a general consensus on the rankings of the CSFs among different respondents, the detailed pairwise comparisons actually show the existence of a few differences in perceptions on the relative importance of the CSFs. Therefore, the working priorities of project managers for managing stakeholders are context specific, depending on the nature, client sector, and cost of the project, and also on their organizations and management levels in the organization. These findings should help project managers become more aware of their responsibilities and the relative importance of issues for management stakeholders.<br /

Stakeholder management in construction : an empirical study to address research gaps in previous studies

This paper concentrates on identifying gaps in the scope of previous studies on stakeholder management, and starting to address those gaps by conducting an empirical study. To complete these research objectives, literature review, interviews, questionnaire survey, and a case study were used in this study. Four gaps regarding critical success factors, stakeholder management process, methods for stakeholder management and stakeholder relationship management were identified. Based on an empirical study, a framework for effective stakeholder management is proposed, and the application of a Social Network Analysis technique, as a means of determining the influence of stakeholders on decision making, is illustrated and validated by a case study. These findings can serve as initial references towards a more systematic approach for stakeholder management. Since the empirical study was conducted only in Hong Kong and Australia, further studies should be conducted in other regions to validate and compare with the finding in this paper

Exploring critical success factors for stakeholder management in construction projects

With a focus on different aspects of stakeholder management, various sets of critical success factors (CSFs) have been suggested in the literature. It is crucial to explore the relative importance and groupings of these factors. This paper aims to identify CSFs associated with stakeholder management in construction projects, and explore their ranking and underlying relationship. 15 CSFs were identified through a literature review, and consolidated by interviews and pilot studies with professionals in construction industry. A questionnaire instrument containing these 15 CSFs was sent out to project managers in Hong Kong, and 183 completed questionnaires were retrieved. The top three ranked factors for stakeholder management were &quot;managing stakeholders with social responsibilities&quot;, &quot;assessing the stakeholders\u27 needs and constraints to the project&quot;, and &quot;communicating with stakeholders properly and frequently&quot;. Using factor analysis and considering the high importance of the factor &quot;managing stakeholders with social responsibilities&quot;, the 15 CSFs were grouped into five dimensions namely, precondition factor, stakeholder estimation, information inputs, decision making, and sustainable support. All these five groupings and their relationship were included in a framework for successful stakeholder management in construction projects. These findings help to clarify what the high prioritized factors are, and could also be used as an assessment tool to evaluate the performance of stakeholder management and thus help to identify areas for improvement. <br /