CONCEPTUAL STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Stakeholder management is an important part of management notion particularly in project management today. In recent years, the concept of stakeholder grows comprehensively among academics and professionals. Despite the widespread stakeholder management, the theory is not straightforward to understand and apply. One of the reasons is the number of theories in literature. Literature reviews reveal the following as stakeholder management theories: normative, instrumental, descriptive, convergent stakeholder and social science stakeholder theories. The research employs existing literature to develop a contemporary understanding of stakeholder management theory of stakeholder management. This paper contributes to the stakeholder management theory by presenting the new concept of stakeholder management theory using two cultures (Western and Chinese cultures in Africa). These management approaches can be classified as Western and Chinese models. The Western model is contractual by nature, while the Chinese model is characterized by informality (guanxi). The new stakeholder management theory called "Accustom theory". The new stakeholder management theory developed-"Accustom theory"-had a lot to do with the stakeholder management in project management. It deals with hard skills, soft skills, and the power structure skills. This paper contributes to stakeholder management theory by presenting accustom theory as a new perspective of stakeholder management theory. The new theory aims to improve the practice of project management by presenting how formality, participation and communication levels in projects improve stakeholders' satisfaction.

Stakeholder attributes and attitudes during privatisation: a New Zealand case study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding of stakeholder attributes and attitudes towards privatisation. It examines the stakeholder attributes through the framework provided by Mitchellet al.(1997). By combining it with the concept of issue salience proposed by Bundyet al.(2013), it addresses the current gap in research on how stakeholders influence the process of privatisation.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a process research approach to examine the privatisation process in New Zealand’s electricity industry in order to explore contexts, content and process of change. By collecting real-time data during the period of privatisation, utilising a process approach provided the authors a view of the historical path and associated events which lead to identification of stakeholder attributes and attitudes towards privatisation.FindingsThe research offers a unique insight into stakeholder attributes exhibited by different groups during privatisation. The authors identified that during privatisation the government is the ultimate stakeholder who sets the rules of the game of privatisation by exhibiting the attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. The attributes exhibited by other stakeholders were transitory and were impacted by issue salience. The authors also identified that stakeholders exhibiting all three attributes (the government) chose a non-response approach to deal with any conflicting issues raised by other stakeholders.Originality/valueThe research examined the new public management emphasis on the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs)vis-à-visstakeholder groups, utilising the complementary concepts of stakeholder salience and issue salience. This research makes a contribution to stakeholder management theory in the public sector by identifying how various stakeholders influence the process of privatisation of SOEs.

Megaproject Stakeholder Management

Effective stakeholder management is crucial for megaproject development and delivery. This chapter provides an extensive review of the project stakeholder management literature, which is largely instrumental rather than descriptive or normative, and in particular fails to address the stakes of the natural environment and future generations in megaprojects. Drawing on developments in stakeholder management theory in strategic management research, the chapter proposes to broaden the agenda to a megaprojects and society perspective and to stress the political, economic, and ethical aspects in the context of an analysis which draws on institutional theory.

The stakeholder management theory of CSR

Purpose – Based on the principles of the stakeholder management theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore customers’ multidimensional perceptions of both banking companies and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations of these companies. The paper also explores how these multidimensional perceptions affect customer identification and satisfaction towards banking companies. Design/methodology/approach – A structural equation model is tested using information collected from 1,124 banking service customers. Findings – The findings demonstrate that customers’ perceptions of customer-related CSR and broad legal and ethical issues have significant positive impact on both customer identification and satisfaction with banking companies. Perceptions of shareholder-related CSR also significantly boost customer satisfaction. In contrast, perceptions of employee- and community-related CSR do not have a profound effect on customer identification or satisfaction. These findings also confirm the importance of customer identification with the company as a key mediator in their satisfaction responses to the multidimensional perceptions of the companies’ CSR orientations. Originality/value – The contribution of the paper is based on the exploration of a multidimensional approach, relying on the principles of the stakeholder management theory to study customer responses and perceptions of the CSR orientations of banking companies. Previous scholars have reported mixed findings while exploring customer responses to their perceptions of companies’ CSR orientations. However, they frequently considered customer CSR perceptions either as one-dimensional or a reflective second-order construct, thus ignoring the possibility of multidimensional CSR perceptions having multiple effects on customer responses such as identification and satisfaction.

Investigating the impact of stakeholder management on the implementation of a public access project: The case of Smart Cape

This paper reports on a study that uses the Stakeholder Management Theory to analyse the implementation of a pilot phase of public access project, the Smart Cape Access Initiative, a Cape Town City Council e-government initiative. Data for the study was gathered through in-depth interviews with individuals who were involved, influenced and were affected by the implementation of the pilot project. The study identified the major stakeholders of the project and assessed their importance and influence on the project. Numerous interactions between the stakeholders were identified. It was further noted that no formal stakeholder management was undertaken at the identification and planning stages of the project lifecycle. In addition, results showed that there were missed opportunities for appropriate stakeholder management throughout the project. This study offers insights into agencies involved in planning and running public access projects.