International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 10, Issue 04, April 2019, pp. 111-118, Article ID: IJCIET_10_04_012
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=10&IType=04
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
© IAEME Publication
Scopus Indexed
FACTORS INHIBITING STAKEHOLDER
MANAGEMENT OF MEGA CONSTRUCTION
PROJECT
Opeyemi Oyeyipo*
Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria
Henry Odeyinka
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state, Nigeria
James Owolabi and Adedeji Afolabi
Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria
ABSTRACT.
The study aims at examining the factors inhibiting stakeholder management of
mega construction projects. The study is a case study research where project managers
of selected 40 mega construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria were sampled. The study
adopted a questionnaire as the research instrument as well as the use of purposive
sampling technique for drawing up the samples for the study. The study found out that
ineffective communication, incomplete identification of stakeholders, complexity of the
project and changes in stakeholder’s interest are the most significant inhibiting factors
affecting stakeholder’s management of mega construction projects. The study
recommends that project managers of such complex project should encourage effective
communication and subsequently prompt information dissemination among
stakeholders in order to address diverse stakeholder’s concerns.
Keywords: Mega project, Nigeria, Stakeholders, ·Stakeholder management.
Cite this Article: Opeyemi Oyeyipo, Henry Odeyinka, James Owolabi and Adedeji
Afolabi, Factors Inhibiting Stakeholder Management of Mega Construction Project.,
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 10(04), 2019, pp. 111–118
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Opeyemi Oyeyipo, Henry Odeyinka, James Owolabi and Adedeji Afolabi
1. INTRODUCTION
Construction activities especially in the built environment are one of the oldest human activities
in the world. In recent times, the scope as well as the number of construction projects has
increased tremendously in response to infrastructural needs and development. This has given
rise to the amount of mega construction projects currently being undertaken in various parts of
the globe and especially in Nigeria. Construction projects as well as infrastructural
developments are needed for economic growth in developing countries. A lot of high profile
projects have been carried out in Nigeria in recent times, this makes the country a veritable
area for construction related studies
Most mega construction projects involve several stakeholders whose diverse interests affect
the progress of the projects positively or negatively. The complexity and type of construction
projects sometimes determine the number of stakeholders involved. According to Cicmil and
Marshall (2005), more complex construction projects will require more stakeholders when
compared to small scale projects, thereby increasing the stakeholders’ uncertainties associated
with such projects. Ward and Chapman (2008) reckon that stakeholders constitute a major
source of uncertainty in construction project management. This implies that stakeholders
expose construction projects to varying degree of risks and uncertainties during the
construction process.
The basic principle of stakeholder management is to get support from stakeholders from
the inception phase of a project and thereby make construction activities issue-driven instead
of personality-driven. The construct is essential through-out the project lifecycle to avoid
conflict. Stakeholder management is an effective approach which involves developing strong
stakeholder interaction in multifaceted project environment (Bourne and Walker, 2005) for
favorable project outcome. However, there are certain challenges affecting the effective
stakeholder management of the different forms of construction projects. The huge size of
construction projects coupled with the complexity of the projects affects the interrelationships
among stakeholders. Mok et al. (2015) highlighted that huge size of construction projects
requires increased stakeholder’s involvement which results into complex stakeholders’
interrelationships and conflicting interests. Yeo (1995) stressed that the dynamics of complex
projects leads to higher project uncertainty which affects the outcome of such projects. It can
thus said that the higher the number of stakeholders on a particular project, the more likelihood
of having conflicting interests which will ultimately lead to dispute and dissatisfaction among
stakeholders on the project.
Previous studies have examined the barriers to stakeholders’ management in construction
project. In a study carried out in South Africa, Eyiah-Botwe, Aigbabavboa and Thwala (2015)
examined the critical barriers affecting stakeholder management in the construction industry.
The study used a structured interview to elicit information about the challenges to effective
stakeholder management. However, the drawback of the research is that the study only
highlighted ten (10) barriers to effective stakeholder management in construction project
delivery. In the same vein, El-Sawalhi and Hammad (2015), Newscombe (2003), Chinyio and
Akintoye (2008) and Mok et al. (2015) listed a few factors militating against the achievement
of successful stakeholder management. While many researches have considered the critical
barriers to stakeholder management, very few studies have examined factors inhibiting
effective stakeholder management (SM) in mega construction projects. The aim of the study is
therefore to investigate the factors inhibiting stakeholders’ management of mega projects in
Lagos, Nigeria. The state was selected because of the continued execution of infrastructural
projects by successive governments in a bid to make the city a mega city.
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Factors Inhibiting Stakeholder Management of Mega Construction Project
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Mega construction projects are complex building projects and infrastructural projects which
aids the production process of goods and services, translating to increased economic growth of
countries. Construction projects especially infrastructural projects ensure strategic
development of nations all over by satisfying economic and societal needs, delivering leading
international events and elevating the country’s social image (Jia et al., 2011). The economic
importance of the construction of complex infrastructural projects cannot be overemphasized
as the effects of such projects are seen in all sectors of the economy. Construction projects are
sources of employment, ultimately having positive effects on both developed and developing
countries. Mok et al. (2015) hinted that systematic approaches and skills by the project manager
is needed to accommodate the volatile state of complex construction projects. As complicated
as construction projects are, no two projects are the same. Ibrahim and Nissen (2004) reckoned
that there is no such thing as a typical projects; no two projects are two are the exactly the same.
This infers that project managers find it relatively difficult to manage the customary complex
nature associated with construction projects. The complicated nature of the construction and
the stipulated time frame for completion makes it difficult to build effective project teams,
enhance trust among stakeholders (Grabher, 2002). Trust among stakeholders, information
exchange, knowledge sharing are important ingredient for successful project outcome in a
complex project environment.
The efficient SM in building and engineering projects has huge role in achieving project
success (El-Naway, Mahd, Badwy & Al-deen, 2015). Ali et al. (2015) stressed that
construction project stakeholders are known to exercise their respective interests and needs
with the construction process after understanding their needs and essence of taking part in the
project. For the success of any construction project, the ability to manage stakeholder’s need
and diverse interests is very important and most notably pivotal. Bal et al. (2013) maintained
that co-ordinated SM process present the platform and basis for project stakeholders to
collaborate efficiently and in the process ensure improved work quality and ultimately increase
economic sustainability. The engagement of stakeholders and the subsequent management of
the stakeholders encourage a cordial and healthy relationship on the construction project. There
are other advantages of stakeholder engagement and its management and they include but not
limited to prompt information dissemination, improved reputation of project participants,
cordial relationship, trust, knowledge transfer and mitigation of threats as well as uncertainties.
According to Newcombe (2003), interference in construction project delivery by
stakeholders affects adversely stakeholder management process. The barriers to effective
stakeholder management arise from the engagement and participation of stakeholders,
stakeholder’s attitude, communication tendencies as well as nature of interactions among the
project participants (Kivits, 2013). Some of the other challenges could include but not limited
to project leadership issues, lack of transparency and accountability. Furthermore, Blood
(2013) enumerated barriers or challenges to stakeholders’ management in complex projects as
fragmented nature of the construction business, stakeholder’s exhaustion and differences in
expectation of the general public and regulatory requirement. Whilst Ihugba and Osuji (2011)
reflected that barriers on the part external stakeholders’ community arise from lack of
awareness, Olander and Ladin (2008) upheld that overriding the long term objectives of
construction projects at the expense of short term ones of the communities introduces public
resistance. The authors further stated that inadequate resource allocation and strong resistance
are other significant barriers to efficient SM in project delivery.
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3. RESEARCH METHODS
This part of the research provided the rationale for carrying out the study. The study is a project
based research examining the factors inhibiting stakeholder management of mega construction
projects. The research was similar to that carried out by Oyeyipo et al. (2018) within the
academic community. This mega construction projects was selected because of the complexity
of the type of project as well as the increased number of stakeholders involved in the project.
The study elicited data from the target respondents using the research questionnaire. An
academic and an experienced project manager validated the constructs used in the research
instrument. Lagos state was considered for the study because of the presence of considerable
number of mega construction projects currently embarked upon by corporate organizations and
the state and federal governments.
There is no specific numeric threshold for the value of mega construction projects. For the
purpose of the study, the projects considered for the study were based on the minimum agreed
contract sum of not less than one billion naira (1$ = 360Naira). The target respondents are
project leaders are project managers, project co-ordinators, contract administrators amongst
others of mega construction projects. The sample projects were selected based on its
availability as at the time of carrying out the study. The study adopted purposive sampling
technique to arrive at the project leaders of the construction projects considered. The sampling
technique helps collect data from the project leaders positioned to provide in depth information
on the factors inhibiting stakeholder’s management in complex projects. This was as a result
of non-availability of the updated list of mega construction projects recently completed within
the study area. The research instrument was divided three parts. The first section addressed the
personal characteristics of the respondents, while the second presented the promoting factors
influencing stakeholder’s management and finally the third highlighted the inhibiting factors
affecting stakeholder’s management in mega construction projects. The study identified fifteen
(15) promoting factors and twelve (12) inhibiting factors influencing stakeholder’s
management in mega construction project. The inhibiting factors identified and used for the
study include but not limited to incompetence of the project manager, change in stakeholder’s
interest during the construction process, unclear project mission, use of rigid project
organization, misunderstanding stakeholder’s area of interest, striking a balance between
conflict resolution and stakeholder’s satisfaction, complexity of the project, ineffective
communication, difficulty in determining, the use of unfavourable route of procurement,
conflicts among stakeholders and difficulty in assessing stakeholder’s attributes. In the same
vein, the study identified the following variables as the promoting factors affecting
stakeholder’s management used for the study and they include; effective communication
among stakeholders, pre-existing cordial relationship, control level of stakeholders, areas of
interest of stakeholders, stakeholder’s coalitions, project tasks assigned to stakeholders,
relationship between project management team and stakeholders, strategies for managing
stakeholders, prompt information dissemination, power and influence of stakeholders,
stakeholder’s classification, stakeholder’s tendency for co-operation, e.t.c. Respondents were
requested to measure the level of significance they attach to factors influencing and inhibiting
stakeholders’ management of building project on a four-point scale (1= not significant, 2=
fairly significant, 3= significant and 4= highly significant.
The study carried out an inter-item matrix on all the variables and a positive correlation
was obtained. The positive value confirmed that all the identified variables comprise of the
same relevant characteristics. The correlation mean of the variables for the research was 0.741
and it falls within the permissible allowable range of 0.48 and 0.76 (Kumar, 2011). This further
revealed that there a relationship between the variables used for the study. The reliability test
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Factors Inhibiting Stakeholder Management of Mega Construction Project
conducted using Cronbach alpha test revealed that all variables were pegged at 0.876. The
value is higher than the 0.7 which is considered the minimum suggested by Pullant (2010)
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the results of the analysis of the collected data for the study, which
provides the basis for making conclusions and recommendations. The study showed that a
considerable proportion (38%) of the respondents possess Masters degree, while about 20%
completed the Bachelor’s degree. Majority of the project leaders that participated in the survey
were civil engineers and architects. This is associated with the fact that most of the mega
construction projects were civil and heavy engineering projects (68%) and the remaining were
building projects. The project leaders that participated in the study assumed project manager’s
role, project co-ordinator’s role and contract administrator’s role with 18%, 57% and 10%
representation respectively. Furthermore, 70% of the project leaders had working experience
of 16years or more, which implies that they were suitably well-informed in the subject matter.
4.1. Factors inhibiting stakeholders’ management in mega construction project
This section examines the factors inhibiting stakeholders’ management of building project. The
study identified twelve (12) factors inhibiting stakeholders’ management from literature. Table
3 presents the factors inhibiting stakeholder’s management of building projects. The mean
score of the level of significance of the identified factors is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Factors inhibiting stakeholders’ management of building project
Factors
Ineffective communication
Incomplete identification/listing of project stakeholders
Complexity of the project
Change in stakeholders interest
Conflicts among stakeholders
Incompetence of project leader
Misunderstanding stakeholders areas of interest in projects
The use of unfavourable route of procurement
Unclear project mission
The use of rigid project organisation
Striking a balance between conflict resolution and stakeholder
satisfaction
Difficulty in determining and assessing stakeholders attributes
Mean
3.39
3.13
3.02
2.98
2.87
2.75
2.59
2.48
2.45
2.36
Remark
Significant
Significant
Significant
Significant
Significant
Significant
Significant
Fairly Significant
Fairly significant
Fairly significant
2.31
Fairly significant
2.04
Fairly significant
Table 1 indicated that ineffective communication is the most significant inhibiting factor
affecting stakeholder’s management of mega construction projects. This is could be linked to
the failure to disseminate information promptly and address stakeholder’s issues regarding the
project. Closely following are incomplete identification of project stakeholders, complexity of
the project, changes in interest during the construction process and conflicts among
stakeholders with mean score of 3.13, 3.02, 2.98 and 2.87 respectively. It can be inferred that
failure to identify silent but powerful stakeholders may constitute major barrier to the
actualization of such intricate projects. In the same vein, the complexity of projects in terms of
size and scope will affect the methodology which might cause disagreement in the construction
process. During the course of the construction project, there is a likelihood that stakeholder’s
interest in the project may tend to change and ultimately affect adversely the outcome of such
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projects. The pre-existing conflict before and during the construction process is another major
inhibiting factor affecting stakeholder’s management of mega construction project. However,
the use of rigid project organization, striking a balance between conflict resolution and
stakeholder’s satisfaction and difficulty in assessing stakeholder’s attributes exerts the least
significance among the inhibiting factors affecting stakeholder’s management in mega
construction project. The project manager’s tendency to be rigid in the project management
process has little effect in the management of stakeholders in complex project. Finally, the
difficulty in assessing stakeholder’s attribute exerts the least effect but never the less makes the
identification of stakeholders complex and hence stakeholder’s management challenging.
The study also discovered that ineffective communication, incomplete identification of
project stakeholders, change of stakeholders’ relationship, change of stakeholders interest and
conflicts among stakeholders are the factors inhibiting stakeholders management of building
project the most. This finding emphasizes the submission of Jergeas, Eng, Williamson and
Skulmoski (2000) that project communication is important in the process of communicating to
stakeholders, the beneficial and detrimental effects of the building project. This is said to be in
addition to actions and progress experienced as the project get underway. In addition, Faniran,
Love and Smith (1999) indicated that it will avert or reduce the effect of stakeholder interests’
and even interest related to conflicts likely to be more costly if permitted to happen when the
project is already in progress.
4.2. Significant difference between the factors promoting stakeholders’
management and factors inhibiting stakeholder management
The study also assessed the significant difference between the factors promoting stakeholders’
management and the factors inhibiting stakeholder management of mega construction project.
To achieve this, wilconxon signed rank test, a non-parametric test is used to measure the
significant difference of the two variables (Pullant, 2010). The result is presented in Table 2
and Table 3.
Table 2: Descriptive statistics of wilconxon signed rank test
N
25
th
Percentiles
50th (Median)
75th
Factors Promoting Stakeholder
management
30
51.0000
54.0000
57.2500
Factors Inhibiting Stakeholder
management
30
35.0000
39.0000
42.0000
The decision rule states that if p value <0.05, you accept the alternative hypothesis and
reject the null hypothesis and vice versa. As shown in Table 3, at p < 0.05 (p=0.000), the
alternative hypothesis is accepted.
Table 3: Wilconxon signed rank rest
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Factors Inhibiting Stakeholder Management- Factors Promoting Stakeholder
Management
-4.786(a)
.000
a Based on positive ranks.
b Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test
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A Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test revealed a statistically significant difference between the
factors promoting stakeholder management and factors inhibiting stakeholder management, z
= –4.786, p < .001, with a large effect size (r = .58). The median score on the factors promoting
stakeholder management scale decreased (Md= 54) to factors inhibiting stakeholder
management (Md= 39). This confirms that there are notable differences between factors
promoting stakeholder’s management and factors inhibiting stakeholder’s management of
mega construction project.
5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The study examined the factors inhibiting stakeholder’s management of mega construction
projects. The study revealed that failure to communicate properly and as at when due is one of
the major barriers to achieving stakeholders’ management. The inability of the project teams
to relate and effectively communicate among themselves makes managing stakeholders on
building project difficult. As the project progress, changes in interest and conflict among the
stakeholders contribute to failings in managing stakeholders in construction project. The
change in interest could be as a result of dispute arising during the course of the project. It is
essential to note that the balancing between dispute resolution among stakeholders and their
subsequent satisfaction on the project is not considered significant.
The study recommended that project leaders should ensure there is effective
communication during the construction process which aids information dissemination among
project stakeholders. Efforts should be made to identify all classes of stakeholders in order to
highlight and sort out all issues concerning each concerned parties in the project.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors appreciate the publication funds provided for the open access of this article by
Covenant University through Covenant University Centre for Research, Innovation, and
Development (CUCRID).
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