Factors hindering external stakeholder management in construction projects of developing countries : case study of Ghana

Abstract

Construction projects are becoming more complex and complicated in delivery, and they are surrounded by numerous stakeholders. Meanwhile, external stakeholders are much more crucial to project success at the planning stage than their internal stakeholder counterparts. Even though stakeholder management (SM) is an important task of the project management process, it has not performed to commendable level in the global construction industry, especially in developing countries. Limited studies have focused on the reasons for the poor performance of external SM in developing countries. Therefore, this study investigates the factors hindering effective management of the external stakeholders at the planning stage of construction projects in developing countries by using Ghana as a case study. The study made use of questionnaire survey to gather the opinions of construction practitioners through snowball sampling. A total of 251 valid responses were received out of the 648 practitioners surveyed. The mean significance analysis was used to establish the relative importance levels of the factors. The results show that the most critical factors hindering effective external SM in developing countries are: ineffective communication with stakeholders; stakeholder involvement is burdensome, time-consuming and expensive; and distrust and challenging relationships making stakeholders hold back vital information. The results provide an avenue for construction project managers to develop countermeasures so that the SM processes could be more effectual. Project managers must perceive external stakeholders as equally important project “assets” and embrace their inputs early in projects to ensure successful and sustainable implementation of projects. Academically, the study contributes to SM literature and further provides a basis for future research into performance improvement of construction SM process in developing countries.