Engagement strategies and challenges for adoption of stakeholder management approaches (SMA) in South Australian construction industry: Preliminary observations

With a focus on internal stakeholder management approaches (SMA), engagement strategies and challenges have been suggested in literature. However, there is a paucity of studies in relation to external stakeholders and in particular, South Australia. This paper aims to investigate the engagement strategies and challenges affecting the external stakeholders in adopting SMAs. 21 engagement strategies and 9 challenges were identified through a literature review, and consolidated by 5 interviews. A questionnaire instrument containing these 21 engagement strategies and 9 challenges were sent out to project management practitioners in South Australia, and 19 completed questionnaires were retrieved. The top three ranked strategies for SMAs were "stakeholder identification", "well defined communication strategy and plan", and "stakeholder expectations are understood". The least ranked were "open information sharing", and "delegating responsibility to the stakeholder". The top three challenges were "conflicting agendas", "scarce resources", and "power conflicts". In contrast, the least ranked three challenges were: "subversive stakeholders", "passive involvement of stakeholders", and "low turn out to meetings". Strategies identified from the interviews included identifying stakeholders as early as the design phase of the projects. This study provides insights and raises awareness on the engagement strategies and challenges for the effective adoption of stakeholder management approaches.