Roles of Stakeholders in a Project

  

Date Posted: 5/24/2018 5:29:16 AM

Posted By: willykorio  Membership Level: Bronze  Total Points: 47

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Stakeholders are usually parties who have a stake in a project and have a great influence on its success or failure. They may be equity or preference shareholders, employees, the government agencies, contractors, financial institutions, competitors, suppliers and the general public. Stakeholders play different roles within a project, depending on responsibilities, rules and titles formulated during the formation of the project or during its growth. This paper seeks to explain the various roles played by stakeholders in managing a project.

Voting and Decision Making

Stakeholders such as board of directors may vote on significant concerns affecting the project. Voting may be annual based or semi annually depending on the structure of project (Freeman, 162-165.). A stakeholder has the right to introduce new ways of doing things in a project. For instance, in case there is embezzlement of funds in the project, a stakeholder may suggest a change in management to avoid future collapsing of the project. Stakeholders may hold major positions in management of the project, where they are answerable to the chief executive officer or managing director. A manager may be a stakeholder in a project because his or her decisions may lead to success or failure of the project’s performance. The manager may be in charge of recruiting and training personnel, and informing the interested parties of any changes in the policies and procedures.

Providing Expertise

Stakeholders are equipped with a wealth of knowledge on industry insight, historical background and current trends in the industry. Stakeholders may be professionals who are well versed with the technical skills regarding the projects. They may include lawyers, accountants, engineers and others. It is vital to involve all important stakeholders in gathering and documenting all the necessary requirements to avoid missing key deliverables. The more you employ expertise, the more you decrease chances of risk

in your project. Involving knowledgeable stakeholders will help uncover risks and then find alternative ways of managing them. As a result of analyzing project requirements with expert stakeholders, you get their opinions which increase the likelihood of project success.

Managing Industrial Crises

Industrial crises involving emission of chemical substances from industries to the environment are influencing the way governments regulate industries. The traditional government financial and regulatory policies for safety and health target more predictable and frequent events rather than unpredictable ones. The government legislates on major environmental issues to protect its people from actions that may pose a threat to their health. In doing this, the government may ban cutting of trees to prevent global warming, impose penalties on industries that discharge untreated waste products to water bodies or harmful smoke to the air, which leads to formation of acid rain.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Stakeholders should continuously make sure that decisions they arrive at in the course of doing their project, do no harm to the society (Radosevich 70). They may decide to use an alternative resource if they realize that current resources are getting depleted. A firm may decide to use renewable resources where the local non renewable resources are at the verge of becoming extinct. Project stakeholders may also choose to initiate projects that are beneficial to the entire local society. For example, project stakeholders may start a scholarship program to fund the education of bright needy students from the area as a way of giving back to the society. Stakeholders can donate funds to a nation that is in need such as the third world countries. They repeatedly monitor the decisions the firm makes to make sure public interest is usually considered first, before profit.

Conclusion

The above observations clearly show that stakeholders play a key role in determining the performance of a project. However, the responsibilities of stakeholders in a project are not limited to the above roles. In many projects, stakeholders may invest, grant project assurance if they are actively involved. By the end of the project, stakeholders should be aware of delivery expectations and the risks involved, and how to mitigate them.

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