The dynamism of stakeholders' power in construction projects

Stakeholders abound in construction projects and often have diverse interests. These stakeholders also have different levels of power which influence certain decisions and sometimes control actions. Given the diversity of stakeholders, it is not unexpected if certain stakes conflict with each other. When this happens, some stakeholders may use their power to gain an upper hand either in negotiations or in the extreme imposing their desires. The interests and powers of stakeholders are dynamic and so it is worthwhile to track these in the course of a project. Stakeholder management advocates for this tracking as well as responding to conflicting stakes. Research was carried out to study how internal stakeholders are managed. That research informs this article which dwells on the dynamic nature of stakeholders' levels of power as a project passes through different phases. The research involved eight interviews with project participants who have interacted with stakeholders. Qualitative data was generated from these interviews by means of audio-recording and transcribing. Content analysis was then used to identify the emerging issues in terms of power and other considerations. The result of the research confirms the position of literature that the level of power of a stakeholder can indeed change during a project; the level of power depends on knowledge and expertise of a stakeholder pertaining some aspect of the project, the legal/contractual authority invested on a stakeholder and status of a stakeholder in terms of ownership. These findings suggest that stakeholders should be tracked during a project, to determine when their level of power changes. That way, stakeholders will relate with each other in a proactive, and not reactive, manner.