Understanding the Relationships Between Local Communities and Project-Based Organizations: Evidence from Major Public Infrastructure and Construction Projects

This article investigates the relationships between project-based organizations and local communities. Specifically, this paper unfolds how local communities' stakeholders are perceived, identified, and categorized by project managers in major public infrastructure and construction projects (MPIC), and current project management practices towards communities' engagement. While local communities are increasingly empowered by governments to take part and be considered in the business decision-making process, thereby attracting attention from both practitioners and academics in the stakeholder management arena, research has primarily focused on those actors essential to the project's economic interests, such as suppliers, sponsors, and customers. Despite the increasing pressure of including "new voices" into the decision-making process, project-based organizations seem unable to contribute more positively towards a more inclusive process and collaboration with 'secondary' stakeholders such as local communities. The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of a more inclusive and holistic approach to engage with a broader range of stakeholders who might be adversely affected by the organization's strategy during the execution of MPIC projects. Specifically, this article defines the local community stakeholder in the project management field, seeks to enhance our understanding of how project managers perceive, identify, and categorize community stakeholders in MPIC, and proposes stakeholder engagement strategies at the local level of such developments.