Rethinking Project Stakeholder Management

Project Management Institute

Stakeholder management may be considered as essential for project and program success. In depth research including modern stakeholder theory and the consideration of sustainability principles in managing projects and program stakeholders as well as operational working forms to support practitioners in stakeholder management are missing. In our research we aim to rethink stakeholder management for project and programs by
• Considering new insights from modern stakeholder theory, for instance the managing for stakeholders approach
• Integrating sustainability principles into project and program stakeholder management
• Developing adequate working forms for a more holistic stakeholder management approach suitable to projects and programs
• Reflecting potentials and limitations of the further developments project and program stakeholder approach
The research is based on the epistemological paradigm of the Radical Constructivism, the organizational paradigm of the Social Systems Theory, which are combined with a qualitative research approach, to challenge and further develop project/program stakeholder management theory and practice. We apply an interactive and multi-method cyclic research approach by conducting in depth literature review, analyzing stakeholder management practices in four practice case studies, experimenting with systemic working forms to perform stakeholder management in four demonstration case studies, and discussing research findings in two focus group workshops.The case studies will cover different project/program types and will be covered out in Europe in US.