Stakeholders, who are they?

Abstract

This paper focuses on stakeholders, and on their importance with respect to projects. At first, the origin and the history of this word help to understand the complexity of this role, which includes several key concepts as interest, support, participation, organizational behavior, influence, value, ethics, and risks. Then, the centrality of stakeholders, who are both the doers and the beneficiaries of each project, is demonstrated: while, on the one side, the stakeholder work is basic for project implementation, on the other side, the stakeholder satisfaction is the main success factor in all projects. Then, an accurate overview about all different project stakeholders is made, with a special focus on project manager, on project team, on reluctant stakeholders, on negative stakeholders, and on personal stakeholders. Finally, the concepts of importance both of stakeholder relationships - as real and proper business and/or social relationships - and of stakeholder management are introduced. This paper is extracted from the first Chapter of my new book “The Stakeholder Perspective: Relationship Management to Increase Value and Success Rates of Projects”, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, October 2019.