JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Abstract

Stakeholder management is a crucial component of project management. The concept of stakeholder salience from stakeholder management has received substantial attention in recent decades, especially in the project management field, as businesses deal with the challenges confronted by globalization, technological change, and other difficulties in light of the current world situation.

This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of stakeholders in the field of project management, acknowledging their influence on project success, strategic frameworks, and various social elements, and how the concept of stakeholder salience is applied in the literature of project management through a systematic literature review. Purposefully selected research papers from the International of Project Management, the leading journal of literature on project management, are categorized into groups based on their common themes and methodologies regarding stakeholder salience.

Exploration of this research reveals a wide range of perspectives and methodologies. The results of this thesis offer a specific categorization to better comprehend how stakeholder salience is applied in the field of project management literature. The following five major categories were identified: Stakeholder Influence Strategies and Actions, Interpretation Processes of External Stakeholder Environment, Complexity and Uncertainty in Stakeholder Management, Social Sustainability and Community Engagement, and Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Frameworks. This thesis enables a better understanding of how the concept of stakeholder salience can be utilized both in project management research and in the practical management of projects.