Developing a Framework for Stakeholder Management throughout Construction Project Life Cycle

Abstract

Stakeholder management subject has recently gained more attention by researchers and construction organizations due to its crucial role in projects success. Stakeholder management controls the relationship among stakeholders and enhances the communication and collaboration by managing the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder aiming to form clear objectives and deliverables. This research aimed to examine the previously identified critical success factors for effective stakeholder management and identify additional factors were not linked previously to stakeholder management. 27 factors were examined and grouped into five principles named as “Project Information”, “Data Input”, “Stakeholder Assessment”, “Decision Making”, and “Effective Support”, in besides to 7 stakeholder management tools were evaluated to determine their criticality on project success in UAE construction industry. The main objective was to verify the ranking of these factors, principles and tools through questionnaire survey to develop an integrated framework. It was highlighted through the data analysis that engineering and management experts were strongly agreeing on the factors and clasifying “Understanding scope of work” as the most critical factor; followed by “Understanding legal responsibilities” as the second factor; while the least ranked factor was “Analysing stakeholders’ changes”. This ranking method was consistent with previous studies that were the base to develop the framework.