Understanding stakeholders’ perceptions of success in project management and elements influencing stakeholder perceptions within an organisational context

Projects are increasingly becoming a major component of organisational activities and a tool that organisations are using to create value for the business (Anantatmula 2010, Medina and Medina 2014). These projects are run by project managers who are faced with the problem of how to effectively manage different stakeholders, who all have differing interests and needs that they expect the project manager to fulfil. For these stakeholders, their expectations must be met for them to perceive the project as a success. The specific problem of interest is that the influence of project management on stakeholder perception is not currently well understood. The purpose of this qualitative research is to assess the perspectives of stakeholders on the impact of project management on project success by examining the extent to which the management of a project influences stakeholders’ perceptions. To achieve this, the researcher developed an integrated framework to synthesise the different constructs of success, stakeholder theory, project management, and change management theories, within an organisational context. The framework maps the relationship between the different constructs to promote a holistic approach to managing stakeholders’ perceptions of success. The researcher’s focus on stakeholder perceptions is hinged on understanding the different interpretations of how people frame and understand a project that is being developed and how the project emerges in their minds. A person’s perception is not a clearly defined or unchanging unit; it comes with an unavoidable level of subjectivity. This roots the research under the interpretivist philosophical paradigm as it views the measurement of success as dependent on different interpretations. It develops our understanding of stakeholder perception as a critical ingredient to project success. A single case study - the Industry Collaboration Zones (ICZ) project of the University of Salford, was adopted for the study and data was collected through the use of semi-structured interviews, focus group and documentation methods. The study introduced a framework for project managers that considers project success from the stakeholder perspective to improve project delivery and create value for organisations