Manage Stakeholders on Construction Projects (Online)

Managing stakeholder engagement is an essential part of project management. It is the process of communicating and working with your project stakeholders to identify their needs and expectations and to determine the appropriate actions needed to satisfy these. Stakeholders may be individuals, groups, or organisations who affect or will be affected by a project decision, activity, or outcome. They also include those who perceive themselves to be affected by the project. Primary stakeholders may include stockholders, suppliers, creditors, employees, and customers. Secondary stakeholders may include the general public, communities, government institutions, labour organisations and the media.

Various organisations and bodies of knowledge consider stakeholder engagement as a key principle of corporate social responsibility, which is a type of self-regulation that helps companies to be socially accountable. This practice allows them to be conscious of their impact on various aspects of society. It is also a strategic initiative which contributes to a company’s reputation.

Stakeholder engagement can be understood in various ways using different theoretical perspectives. Although it is widely recognised that stakeholder engagement is related to and is the basis of good corporate governance, stakeholder engagement may or may not entail a moral dimension; therefore it is important to study stakeholder engagement as a morally neutral practice.

Stakeholder engagement is necessary to understand your stakeholder’s views on social and environmental issues and to involve them in decision-making. The theory behind stakeholder engagement is that it is not a mere communications process where your goal is to influence stakeholders into agreeing with your decisions. Its essential tenet is the idea that stakeholders can influence your project’s decision-making process.

As a project manager, it is your responsibility to manage your stakeholders’ engagement to ensure the success of your project. You will have to assess their interests and expectations and determine forms of engagement. Throughout the course of your project life cycle, you will be monitoring their engagement, assigning roles and responsibilities, as well as supporting your stakeholder’s development needs. You will also be responsible for reviewing and documenting any improvements necessary for your engagement processes.

In this course, you will learn how to assess your stakeholder’s interests as well as how to monitor, review and manage stakeholder engagement.