Stakeholder’s Perspectives on Integrating
Sustainability in Project Management
Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of MBA in Project Management at Dublin Business School
ASHISH ZAMBRE
STUDENT NUMBER: 10163728
SUPERVISOR NAME: Patrick O’Callaghan
SUBMISSION DATE: 21ST August 2015
NO OF WORDS: 18299
MBA in Project Management
August 2015
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2. Declaration:
I, ASHISH ZAMBRE, declare that this research is my original work and that it has
never been presented to any institution or university for the award of Degree or
Diploma. In addition, I have referenced correctly all literature and sources used in
this work and this this work is fully compliant with the Dublin Business School’s
academic honesty policy.
Signed:
ASHISH ZAMBRE
Date: 21ST August 2015
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3. Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to lot of people on completing my dissertation. First of all, I
would like to thank you GOD for making what I am as of today. I would like to thank my
supervisors, Professor Patrick O’Callaghan and Professor Brid Lane for guiding me and providing
me knowledge all through the time of my dissertation. Thank you for providing me guidance from
the start to finish by your valuable feedback, intellectual insights and assistance in craving path to
my process of dissertation.
Additionally, I am grateful to the interviewees that shown enthusiasm to conduct my research and
I sincerely acknowledge their willingness, support for their devotion of valuable time for this
research. I would especially like to thank the four participants which I have included in my research
but also the ones who could not be due to the short duration of the research.
Next, I would like to thank my parents for providing me the opportunity to do my masters, without
them this would not be possible. I would like to thank DBS and all its staff and my fellow
classmates for the small contributions that helped me conduct my research.
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4. Abstract
In today’s world, the way business and organisations deal with their procedure of lading their work
is more project driven and moreover they are driven by sustainability goals than ever before. It is
evident that for a project to be successful the inclusion of sustainability is clear but the vision and
approach for the two domains are different, so it would be interesting to investigate the link
between them. Especially by examining, the comprehensive importance of stakeholders in project
management processes. Hence the research aims to study the influence of stakeholder in providing
positive contributions and their impact analysis for project management practices. Several
participants or stakeholders were selected who are working on projects related to sustainability
goals as their prime concern, out of which four were finalised. An important finding that was
discovered that different stakeholders had different perspectives related to the three performance
indicators of sustainability which is People, Planet and Profit, but still more significance was given
to the economic factors and the inclusion of environmental and social aspects were rarely measured
in the management and delivery of their projects, although they categorise their projects as
sustainable.
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Table of Contents
1. Cover page…………………………………………………………………………………0
2. Declaration:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
3. Acknowledgements
……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
4. Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
5. Table of Contents …….………………………………………………………………………..4
6. Introduction
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7
6.1 Background and Overview ………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
6.2 Research Question and sub-question
…………………………………………………………………………. 9
6.3 Research Roadmap ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10
6.4 Scope and Limitations of the Research ……………………………………………………………………. 12
7. Literature Review
7.1 Literature Introduction
…………………………………………………………………………………………… 13
7.2 Literature Theme 1 – Stakeholder management ………………………………………………………… 13
7.3 Literature Theme 2 – Impact of sustainability in project management
………………………….. 14
7.3.1 Basic principles of sustainable development
………………………………………………………….. 14
7.3.2 Theoretical concept of Project Management
……………………………………………………….. 19
7.3.3 Sustainability in projects and project management
………………………………………………. 21
7.3.4 The reason for integration of sustainable development ………………………………………… 21
7.3.5Current research on integration of sustainability in project management
…………………. 24
7.3.6 Challenges for sustainable integration and its impact analysis ………………………………. 24
7.4 Literature Theme 3-Stakeholders perspective–Improve sustainable outcomes of projects 27
7.4.1 Stakeholders Perspectives Analyzed
………………………………………………………………….. 27
7.4.2 Stakeholder Engagement- Analyze Perspectives- Sustainable outcomes ………………… 28
7.4.3 Current Literature on Stakeholder Perspectives
…………………………………………………… 31
7.5 Contextualizing of the Literature Review: ……………………………………………………………….. 32
7.6 Theoretical framework development
……………………………………………………………………….. 32
8 Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 36
8.1 Methodology Introduction
……………………………………………………………………………………… 37
8.2 Research Design …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 39
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8.2.1 Research Philosophy ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 39
8.2.2 Research Approach …………………………………………………………………………………………. 41
8.2.3 Research Strategy
……………………………………………………………………………………………. 42
8.2.4 Sampling –Selecting Respondents …………………………………………………………………….. 43
8.2.5 Plan of Completion………………………………………………………………………………………….. 45
8.2.6 Research Ethics…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….48
9. Data Analysis and Findings ………………………………………………………………………………………… 48
10. Discussions: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 56
11. Conclusions and Recommendations …………………………………………………………………………… 64
11.1 Recommendation for further research ……………………………………………………………………. 67
12 Reflection on learning and skill development. ……………………………………………………………… 68
Bibliography: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 74
APPENDIXS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 82
Appendix 1 – Pre- Interview Email and Confidentiality Information
………………………………… 82
Appendix 2: Interview Questions …………………………………………………………………………………. 83
Appendix 3 – Interview Transcripts ………………………………………………………………………………… 85
APPENDIX 4 – Signed Consent Form from Interviewees
………………………………………………… 103
List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1 Roadmap of dissertation ……………………………………………………………………………………. 11
Figure 2 the three spheres of Sustainability from source: (Seoka, et al., 2012) ……………………… 17
Figure 3 Moving towards sustainable development source (Kurucz, et al., 2013)
………………….. 18
Figure 4: Connected Business as a driver for Sustainable Innovation. Source (Gerlach, 2015) .. 23
Figure 5 Comparison of Sustainability and Project Management Processes (Silvius & Schipper,
2014). ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25
Figure 6 Stakeholder engagement process model (Csrquest.net, 2012) ………………………………… 29
Figure 7 Snam Rete Gas Stakeholder Engagement Model (SnamReteGas 2010 Sustainability
Report, 2010) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 30
Figure 8 Toulmin Model – Argument analysis diagram (Toulmin, 2003) …………………………….. 34
Figure 9 Perception analysis method (Enserink, 2010) ………………………………………………………. 34
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Figure 10 Theoretical framework developed for Stakeholder perception analysis …………………. 35
Figure 11 Saunders Research Onion
………………………………………………………………………………… 39
Figure 12 Selecting sampling technique from source (Saunders, et al., 2009)
……………………….. 44
Figure 13 Plan of Completion
…………………………………………………………………………………………. 47
Figure 14 Toulmin Model for Respondent 1 …………………………………………………………………….. 51
Figure 15 Toulmin Model for Respondent 2 …………………………………………………………………….. 53
Figure 16 Toulmin Model for Respondent 3 …………………………………………………………………….. 54
Figure 17 Toulmin Model for Respondent 4 …………………………………………………………………….. 56
Figure 18 Theoretical framework – Stakeholder perception analysis ……………………………………. 61
Figure 19 Integration of climate change in corporate governance (PWC, 2011). …………………… 66
Figure 20 Learning Style source: (Honey & Mumford, 1986) …………………………………………….. 71
Table 1: Plan of Completion …………………………………………………………………………………………… 46
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6. Introduction
Depletion of natural resources by its exploitative use as being one of the major reasons of global
warming and climate change issues are perhaps the greatest threat to our current livelihoods
(Panwar, et al., 2011). In a generation of such crises, there is a humongous need for the
development of renewable form of energy that serves the need of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (Brundtland, 1987). These
sources of energy are called sustainable energy for e.g. wind energy, solar energy, geothermal
energy (GEA Writing Team, 2012, p. 773). Acknowledging this view, both business and public
organizations have been expressing their interest and commitment to environmental and social
causes (Benn, et al., 2014, p. 136). Consequently, the way in which government and business
organizations operate is shifting significantly by putting more emphasis on societal and
environmental issues. As an example of the environmental issues, a report from Carbon Disclosure
Project for the year 2014 (www.cdp.net, 2015) shows that over 304 investors with US$22 trillion
in assets under management having asked the world’s highest carbon emitting companies on
reduction of its carbon emissions. Also, there is an upward trend seen in the number of companies
establishing emissions-reduction targets, with an increase of 14% over three years to reach 79%
of responding companies (227) as compared to 65%(196) in the year 2010. Hence over the past
few years, companies and government from many countries have been executing more projects
that relate to societal and environmental issues.
6.1 Background and Overview
The link between project management and sustainability is relatively new (Hwanga & Jian, 2013).
Lot of projects today are driven by sustainability goals than ever before and amendment of
organizations goals or strategies with the need for sustainability as a critical factor for project
success is clear (Brones, et al., 2014). But, the reasons for driving an organization towards
sustainability can be from different causes (Benn, et al., 2014, p. 224). For example, while clients
or employees can request and suggest enabling the drive in an organization, recommended
certificates and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) options can present new opportunities in
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emerging markets; governmental regulations can simply compel the organization to meet certain
standards. At the same time, other reasons might refer to the ethical obligation (“it is the good
thing to do”) and strategic vision. Furthermore, knowing that projects driven by sustainability
involve various stakeholders such as government institutions, Profit/Non-profit environmental
organizations, NGO’s and business organizations, locally affected residents or individuals leads to
a realization that the quality requirements level of the project also going to be increased (Manetti,
2011). Thus, by looking at these scope and objectives, it has been interesting to conduct a research
on the perspectives of stakeholders involved in these projects. The intent or reason behind
conducting this research is that the change of perspectives might affect the project execution and
the project success factors. Moreover, by using project management tools such as stakeholder
management (Project Management Institute, 2013, p. 391) would be helpful in knowing and
analysing the stakeholder’s problems and conflicts can be reduced by setting a better strategic plan
at the earlier phase of a project. One such example is the formulation of new regulations by the
government or the improvement of corporate strategic plan. Therefore the main objective of this
research is to investigate the perspectives of stakeholders on sustainability in projects and project
management.
From the wide variety of definitions of sustainability (also known as sustainable development –
SD) across different literatures, the research proposal intends to use the most common one from
Brundtland’s report (Brundtland, 1987), which state “Sustainable development is development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs”. After the introduction of the concept of sustainable development from Brundtland’s
report, there has been extensive discussion including the formulation of three fundamental
concepts of sustainable development (Harris, 2000), which are:
· Environmental protection
· Economic growth
· Social equity
These are also known as 3P’s: People, Planet and Profit. Harris (Harris, 2000) states that
sustainable solution can be achieved by balancing the 3P’s by setting choices and priorities equally
to all 3 of them and without any possibilities that one P will have more profit at the expense of
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another. Since each P is related to actors and interdependency is crucial among them, it appears
that sustainable development is multi-actor characteristic in nature where stakeholders are getting
involved in the decision making process (Bergmans, 2006, pp. 117-125).
In 2008 World Congress of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), the
opening key-note presentation called upon the project management profession to “take
responsibility for sustainability” (McKinlay, 2008), the consideration of the principles of
sustainability in project management was still in its infancy. The purpose of integration of
sustainably into project management highlights the complex aspect of professional project
management, not only from technical point of view but also because the project manager should
deal with organization factors that are beyond its control. Later at IPMA expert seminar on 2010
(Turner, 2010) several discussions on the integration of sustainability in projects and project
management were raised and although until now several researches has been done in this field, for
example by authors such as Barnard et al (Barnard, et al., 2011), Hope and Ebbesen (Ebbesen &
Hope, 2013), Eskerod & Huemann (Eskerod & Huemann, 2013), still it is an emerging field of
study (vom Brocke, et al., 2012). However, Turner (Turner, 2014, p. 312), observed that
“Sustainable development in temporary organizations such as projects and programs is rarely
contemplated or considered” and ultimately he concluded that the standards for project
management “fail to seriously address the sustainability agenda”. More recently, Silvius and
Schipper (Silvius & Schipper, 2014) concluded that “the relationship between sustainability and
project management is … picking up momentum” and that the majority of studies was published
in the last four years. With all these insights and knowledge developing, Silvius concludes that an
overview is needed. This proposal aims to contribute to this overview by providing a structured
review of the available literature and study on sustainability and project management. With this
review the research aims to answer the main research question:
6.2 Research Question and sub-question
“What are the perspectives of stakeholders on integrating sustainability in projects and how it
could be integrated into project management?”
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To address the main research question, three sub-questions are themed and interpreted as below:
SQ1: “what are the perspectives of stakeholders on sustainability in projects?”
SQ2: “what are the similarities and dis-similarities between their perceptions?”
SQ3: How could an investigation of stakeholder’s perspectives measure sustainability integration
in project management practices?
With these aims the research objective is to investigate whether stakeholders’ perspectives on
sustainability can give a positive contribution to project management practices. The research will
confront theory with practice. An overview of sustainability concepts and theories would be
explored and it will investigate how sustainability has been adopted by society and business
organizations. Subsequently, in its empirical part, a deep focus on stakeholders’ perspectives in
project management would be done.
Another purpose of the research is to fill the scientific gap in the literature studies. As seen from
above, although sustainability being new to project management, there is an extended literature on
sustainability in project management and stakeholder analysis concepts, no work has been done to
know about stakeholders’ perspectives on sustainability in projects and project management. In
addition to that, it is expected that this research can contribute to other research that is being
conducted by different researcher in the field of sustainability driven project management.
6.3 Research Roadmap
Having given the background of the research topic and the research question formulated, a formal
dissertation road map will be presented. Chapter two will examine the literature on the topic of
research which is basically divided in to three themes. The first theme will give a background on
stakeholder management. The second theme will present various aspects of sustainability and
project management, including the basic principles of sustainability, how and why is it important
to integrate sustainability in project management practices followed by challenges, impact and
current research on the field of study. Later in the third theme, would present the analysis of the
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stakeholder’s perspective and how their engagement helps in achieving sustainable outcomes. In
the third chapter the methodology of the research would be discussed. Chapter four would present
the analysis of data collected from the interviews and chapter five would have discussion on the
review of the researchers work, findings. This particular phase would lead the researcher to help
answer his research sub-questions and eventually his main question. In the end, chapter six would
present conclusions and recommendations including summarising of the research findings and
recommendation for future research. Figure 1 gives the basic approach used as a roadmap in the
research.
Figure 1 Roadmap of dissertation
Respondent 1
Respondent 2
Respondent 3
Respondent 4
Data Collection
Data Analysis and Findings
Discussions
Recommendations and
Conclusions
Literature Research
Theoretical Framework
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6.4 Scope and Limitations of the Research
Although a lot of measures would be engaged to ensure high quality of research, there would be
limitations needed to be considered.
•
As qualitative based research is considered, there would be a lack of statistical analysis or
generalisation, which is more a characteristic of quantitative research (Kohlbacher, 2006).
Instead research would be more of an interpretive way with analytical generalizations using
the perspectives gained from the interviews conducted
•
Limited information from organizations in their sustainability approach.
•
Limited information available on the innovative ideas developed by companies in fear of
competitions to them.
•
To overcome this a clear understanding of the research would be given with probable
benefits that the organization may get.
•
A word of trust would be exchanged with any form of documentation if needed.
•
Due to the time constraints of the research, not more than four critical interview
respondents would be chosen out of many reviewed. To support the analysis of data
collected, argumentative analysis tools will be used such as Toulmin method. The data
from the interviews would be strictly used for analytical purposes needed for the research.
Data such as the participants name and the name of the projects they are involved in would
not be stated due to confidentiality reasons.
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7. Literature Review
7.1 Literature Introduction
The first theme will give a background on stakeholder management. The second theme will present
various aspects of sustainability and project management, including the basic principles of
sustainability, how and why is it important to integrate sustainability in project management
practices followed by challenges, impact and current research on the field of study. Later in the
third theme, would present the analysis of the stakeholder’s perspective and how their engagement
helps in achieving sustainable outcomes
7.2 Literature Theme 1 – Stakeholder management
The birth of stakeholder concept, as stated by Freeman and Reed, is credited to Stanford Research
Institute, which defined the stakeholder as “those groups without whose support the organization
would cease to exist” (Freeman & Reed, 1983). Freeman brought the stakeholder concept in theory
through his textbook, “Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach”, which defined
stakeholder as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the
firms objective” (FREEMAN, 1984). Freeman is regarded as the father of Stakeholder
management concept (Laplume, et al., 2008) and since the past 30 years most researches have cited
him as the foundation of stakeholder management theory. Since its foundation by Freeman,
stakeholder theory developed rapidly and by 1995, dozens of books and hundreds of articles
published dedicated to stakeholder concepts (Friedman & Miles., 2002). The concept of
stakeholder theory was examined on various organizational levels, such as CEO values as a critical
stakeholder (Agle, et al., 1999), common people (Argandona, 1998), Firms resources (Barney,
1991), relationship between stakeholder model and firms financial performance (Berman, et al.,
1999), evaluating firm corporate social responsibility (Clarkson, 1995), (Clarkson, 1988).
During recent times a number of articles focused on value creation using stakeholder theory such
as (Argandona, 2011), (Phillips, 2011), (Sachs & Rühli, 2011) while some focused on stakeholder
theory on project management. A very good example of inception of stakeholder theory in project
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management is by the introduction of the stakeholder concept as a new knowledge area in PMBOK
guide in 2013 (PMI, 2013) which defined stakeholder management as, “Stakeholders are basically
an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be
affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project”. Every organization will have stakeholders
who are impacted by or can impact their activities in a positive or negative way and some may be
completely not involved (Jepsen & Eskerod, 2013). While some stakeholders may have a limited
ability to influence the project, others may have significant influence on the project and its
expected outcomes (Gunsteren & Gunsteren, 2011). In project oriented process, the ability to
correctly identify and manage these stakeholders in an appropriate manner can mean the difference
between success and failure (Roeder, 2013).
7.3 Literature Theme 2 – Impact of sustainability in project management
As the stakeholders management is critically defined, this theme would then check the impact of
sustainability in areas of project management. Starting with gathering the basic concepts of
sustainable developments which is important to give an overview to the. Further the relationships
between sustainability and project management would covered including the reasons for its
integration, challenges and impact analysis. It would also cover current research in the area of
integration of sustainability in project management.
7.3.1 Basic principles of sustainable development
In order to understand about sustainability in projects and its integration in project management,
it is essential to know more about the evolution of sustainable development (SD) concepts and its
importance that form the building blocks for its incorporation in project management area. By
gaining deeper insights on the basics of sustainable development would help to get a clear
overview on sustainability and eventually its integration into project management.
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The concept of sustainability can be first analyzed since it became a part of sustainable
development in 1987 in a report, “Our common future” by World Commission on Environment
and Development (WCED) (Brundtland, 1987). Also known as Brundtland’s definition, WCED
defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Since its inception and
more recently up to 10 to 15 years, the concept of sustainability has gained significantly in its
recognition and importance (Silvius & Schipper, 2014). Silvius and Schipper also debates, can
humans develop prosperity without compromising the future. Even though Brundtland’s definition
is used by many author and researchers in their citations and can be considered as a standard
definition, it does not limit the scope of sustainability but it does, however touch on the importance
of intergenerational equity and wide areas of its inception possibilities (Robert, et al., 2005). In
reaction to which Labuschagne and Brent (2005) (Labuschagne & Brent, 2005) write: “There are
currently over 100 definitions of sustainability and sustainable development, but most agree that
the concept aims to satisfy social, environmental and economic goals.” Numerous other
researchers view that the concept of sustainability can be visualized on wider levels while some
authors acknowledge it as being supported by three basic pillars: social, environment and
economic goals (Azapagic & Perdan, 2014) . These three pillars however is been thought to be
derived from Brundtland’s report (Brundtland, 1987) which highlights three main objectives that
sustainable development needs to address
Between the poor and the rich
Between current and future generations
Between humankind and nature
Based on these objectives, various principles, strategies and goals relating to sustainability were
defined by many authors and organizations, a recent one being given by Margaret Robertson
(Robertson, 2014) :
Consumption of natural resources must be minimized and use of renewable energy must
be considered.
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The economic and environmental benefits of using green, renewable energy must be
educated in small to large scale companies.
Old traditions of exploratory use of fossils and other natural resources should be
discontinued and a new effective and ecological use must be given importance.
Human potentials such as co-operation, intellectual development and love for the nature
should be stimulated.
Organizations and individuals should contribute to a common good and just not focus on
private good.
The three pillars of SD were further developed and modified by researchers such as by Mulder
(Mulder, 2006), called as triple bottom line or the 3 P’s of SD: People, planet and profit where
people are related to social system, profit is related to economic system and planet is related to
environmental system. These 3 P’s are explained in simplest way by Potthast and Meisch (Potthast
& Meisch, 2012) where ‘People’ refers to social costs and benefits, influencing public opinion and
their values, perceptions and interests of citizens. Planet refers to ecological costs and benefits
dealing with norms and goals regarding ‘natural capital’ and public environmental goods asking
not to trespass ecological limits (air, water, climate, biodiversity, forests, soil ) and finally ‘Profit’
refers to economical costs and optimizing benefits keeping in mind the objectives of sustainability
in economic sphere should be about improving this processes of optimization. The three spheres
of sustainability is clearly explained by Seoka et al. (Seoka, et al., 2012), as shown in the figure 2
below:
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Figure 2 the three spheres of Sustainability from source: (Seoka, et al., 2012)
The discussion of sustainability further advances internationally such as the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) (Development, 2012) describes sustainability
in simple terms as a processes of meeting today and tomorrow’s human development goals without
compromising on the ability of the natural systems to continually provide its natural resources,
upon which the economy and society depends (Sustainabledevelopment.un.org, 2015). In the
conference, sustainable development was recognized as an overreaching goal for institutions at
national and international levels and a high importance was given for the need to enhance the
integration of sustainable development in the activities of companies all over the world. However
in the same year, the 2012 BSR/Global Scan study objects that, “The most important leadership
challenge facing business today is the integration of sustainability into core business functions.”
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To help understand better, the three pillars of sustainability
and sustainable development is visualized by Kurucz, et al.
(Kurucz, et al., 2013), as shown in the figure 3. Sustainability
is achieved at the center of the three merging circles of the
three SD pillars. A gradual effort of continually enlarging the
sustainability circle by continued effort in integrating
sustainability through three ways of eco-system, socio-system
and techno-system would mean a progressive effort where all
the organizational and human activities sustainable with a
goal of achieving sustainable future.
The above processes of integrating sustainability seems to be
simple but building sustainability in to an organization is not
an easy task (Rowe & Bansal, 2013). Every organization or
business has a goal to be successful and make profit, either in
the terms of money of increase its business value. Compared
to traditional methods of making profits and make decisions
based solely on the bottom line, there is a need for companies
to think long term taking sustainable measure along the way
of making profits (Rowe & Bansal, 2013). More attention
needs to be given on building strong employee relationships
and sustainability visions need be deeply embedded in them
so that every single person should think himself accountable
for all his or her sustainable activities. Having done this
sustainable companies also need to thrive, surviving shock
like global recession, executive scandals, labor strikes,
boycott by environmental activists (Rowe & Bansal, 2013).
Figure 3 Moving towards
sustainable development source
(Kurucz, et al., 2013)
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Furthermore, companies all around the world are facing these global challenges which is affecting
its business operations (Virakul, 2015). An excellent way of addressing these challenges is by
applying SD concept in business organizations through corporate social responsibility (CSR),
corporate governance (CG) and sustainable policy and practices and embedding them at a strategic
level. This is evident today from the mission statements of several companies such as Apple,
Adidas, TATA group and they accredit their success with an ideal of reconciling different and
sometimes opposing views, values and goals of their consumers, employee, shareholders and
community, collectively their stakeholders, delivering sustainable results to the society while
protecting environment, health and safety of their stakeholders (Sustainability, 2012)
7.3.2 Theoretical concept of Project Management
The previous section described sustainability and sustainable development in detail. Before the
link between sustainability and project management would be analyzed, the idea or the concept of
project management would be described.
Project management has been defined in different ways by many authors and organizations but
probably the most authoritative definition is stated by Lester (Lester, 2013) as defined by BS 6079-
2:2000, “A unique processes, consisting a set of coordinated and control activities with start and
finish dates, undertaken to achieve an objective confirming to specific requirements, including
constraints of time, cost and resources.” In simpler terms, PMI (Pmi.org, 2015), a major
international organization, globally recognized advocacy for project management defines project
management as, “A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or a result”.
Furthermore, project management then is the application of skills, knowledge, tools and techniques
to meet project requirements.
The basic principles of project management has evolved since the early 1900’s and accelerated
after 1950’s (Richardson, 2014). Even earlier, there are various projects which are quite impressive
in their scale sand cannot be imagined without the use of some type of project management such
as the great pyramid of Giza, the Great Wall of China but they dint follow what we call modern
project management style of design, rather they can be termed as formal project management that
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basically guided the work processes and managed the variables involved (Richardson, 2014).
Effective use of project management skills, tools and techniques flourished during the World war
in military, complex research and development such as military weapons systems (Meredith &
Mantel, 2011). Consequently the use of project management tools and techniques spread across
various industries for instance construction, automobile, events, election campaigns, IT, logistics,
weddings, parties (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). The more complex the project was, called for the
use of even more complex project management tools and techniques.
Furthermore, project management is a technique that provides proficiency to its users such as
individuals and organizations by application of it powerful tools and techniques, enhancing the
ability to plan, implement and control activities, simultaneously providing expertise in the way it
uses its people and resources (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). Project management activities are
divided in several life-cycles or frameworks, in simpler terms phases such as planning, controlling,
executing, monitoring and closing (PMI, 2013). However several authors and project management
literatures term and use these phases differently (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). Irrespective of the
phases and definitions, the main challenge of project management is to accomplish project goals
and objectives in time and within the scope, quality and budget of the project, also called as the
project constraints (Pmi.org, 2015). However other aspects and elements need to be considered.
This new element is the expectations of the stakeholders, which is very dynamic and keeps on
altering during the project execution (Roeder, 2013). Customers may have unrealistic and ever
demanding expectations, even worse, they may keep on changing their requirements during the
project execution. Coordinating the project teams and the client’s perspectives is not an easy task
and in due course there might be possibilities of conflicts arising on the project outcomes but it is
important to keep all the project variables aligned since the project success depends on team work,
in the sense, the project stakeholders should be well balanced and with focused views (Meredith
& Mantel, 2011). As in the research conducted by Duggal (Duggal, 2010), while achieving other
criteria such as meeting business case objectives, quality of delivery, benefits realization, project
managers need to broaden their perspective to include criteria to satisfy stakeholders and deliver
business results.
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7.3.3 Sustainability in projects and project management
In today’s rapid organizational developments, the impact of sustainability concerns indicate the
current way of producing, managing, consuming and living may have negative effect on the future
(Magaril, et al., 2014). Hence a change is needed on sustainability terms. Also, change in
organizations in form of a new product, plant, business or resource is many case is organized as
projects (Silvius & Batenburg, 2009). Therefore it could be argued that (more) sustainable society
needs projects.
This category would brief on the discussion of sustainability in to two segments. Firstly the reasons
for the integration would be summarized, following which several researches that have been done
concentrated in the field of integration of sustainability in project management would be explored.
And lastly, the challenges and impact analysis of sustainability integration in project management
would be explored.
7.3.4 The reason for integration of sustainable development
Growing environmental concerns, in parallel with increased natural energy costs and
manufacturing costs coupled with stricter governmental and community regulations, are few of the
many reasons for the change in the way of people doing business across the world (International
Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), 2015). It is widely accepted fact that, companies
that do better with regards to environmental, social, corporate and governance issues can increase
shareholders value for example, effectively managing risk, accessing new markets while
anticipating regulatory actions and finally contributing to sustainable development in the markets
in which they operate (International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), 2015). In
addition to that, companies have realized other areas which benefit them to grow their business by
adopting to sustainable business practices in their projects as (Virakul, 2015):
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–
Appealing to stakeholders values by building trust and building a socially and
environmentally responsible brand image.
–
Increased trust leads to increasing business and opportunities with nongovernmental
organizations, research institutions leading to launching of environmentally conscious
products and services.
–
Increased sustainable products leads to increased partnership and investment opportunities
craving to become recognized as positive economic force in the industry.
Companies have also realized the benefits of sustainable business in increasing their productivity
and lowering costs such as (Sustainabledevelopment.un.org, 2015):
–
By adopting to alternative sources such as solar and wind power has reduced their
dependency on fossil fuels and nuclear power resources.
–
Reduce transportation costs for example by the use of solar power that generates electricity
right at the factory instead of transporting it from the power stations and reduce packaging
costs through improved product design and production processes along with encouraging
recycling of reuse materials in the creation of future products.
One of the major factor such as reduce overall risk to the business by adopting to sustainable
management practices can help to protect the business in a number of such as (Rowe & Bansal,
2013):
–
By adopting to sustainable development provides companies with greater protection
against litigations arising from social and environmental issues.
–
Increased to company staff, customers and other linked stakeholder community by
eliminating the use of toxic substances.
–
Enriched relationships with governmental, environmental and other regulatory authorities
simultaneously decreasing the risk of being targeted by media, environmentalist or other
consumer advocacy groups.
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The above could be summarized as shown in figure 4 below taken from source (Gerlach, 2015)
In today’s world there is high importance given to sustainable business practices which has forced
organizations to be more transparent and disclose a wide variety of information about their
activities including their sustainability (Soderstrom, 2013). As a result, corporations have extended
their traditional financial reporting in to sustainable reporting which Soderstorm (Soderstrom,
2013) defines as, “the communications which corporations make, concerning their corporate social
responsibility (CSR) activities, including social and environmental impacts in additional to their
financial performance.” There is a philosophical shift from previous financial reporting standards
which focused on human resources, employee relations, marketing activities, accounting, and
production to a more integrated sustainable reporting consisting of other areas of social and
environmental implications (International Integrated Reporting Council, 2011). Due to such a high
pressure, companies have started considering application of sustainable practices in their various
Figure 4: Connected Business as a driver for Sustainable Innovation. Source (Gerlach, 2015)
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department and indirectly the way they do business and conduct projects, to which project
management is relatively new and studies relating to project management and sustainability is still
an emerging field (Silvius & Schipper, 2014), although there are signs of incorporation of its ideas
in several literatures of recent years (Bo & Bignami, 2014), (Eskerod & Huemann, 2013), (Gareis,
et al., 2013). The researches and findings of relationship between sustainability and project
management would be discussed in the next section.
7.3.5 Current research on integration of sustainability in project management
While the implications of sustainability in project management is discussed, it is interesting to get
the views of several other researchers, so as to help the author find the gap of his proposed research.
There are various suggestions by authors such Bignami and Bo (Bo & Bignami, 2014, p. 18) states
that,” Sustainability in project management is about integrating economic, environmental and
social aspects in the content and management of projects”. While Brocke et al (Brocke, et al., 2012,
p. 173) suggests,” Sustainability in project management is about considering the full life-cycle of
the project”. Some studies focuses implication on sustainability for business strategies and policies
as (Perrini & Tencati, 2006) (Schieg, 2009) and thereby on content of projects/changes, but pay
little attention to the implications of sustainability on project management processes and on the
competencies of the project manager. Whereas some projects (Eid, 2009), (Gareis, et al., 2013)
focuses on the impact of sustainability on the process of managing projects/changes, but again
little attention to the stakeholders contribution of projects and project management to
sustainability.
7.3.6 Challenges for sustainable integration and its impact analysis
After getting an overview on sustainable development principles, project management
background, connection between them and several literatures on them, the contrasting factors
