ASSESMENT ON STAKHOLDER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES: THE CASE OF HEINKEN ETHIOPIA PHASE THREE EXPANSION PROJECT

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the practices and challenges of stakeholder management in the case of Heineken Ethiopia phase three expansion project in Kilinto. The research used descriptive research design and a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data gathered through structured questionnaires distributed to 55 respondents who are project staff andhave a direct involvement during the project. The data obtained through questionnaire has been analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics: frequency and percentage through SPSS version 26 software. The finding of the study reveals that there is institutionalized stakeholder management system within the organization. And the project stakeholder identification, planning, and communication practices was good. However, there was a gap in analyzing, engaging all stakeholder, and managing their expectation. The findings present that key stakeholder were not identified at the initial stage of the project and their interests were not analyzed at the required level. Conflict of interest among stakeholder, lack of proper conflict resolution plan strategy is also identified as the major challenge faced project. The study also revealed challenges like different characteristic stakeholder, different expectation, limited understanding of stakeholder and ineffective communication, had their own effect on the performance of the projects in the organization. Finally, it is recommended that all stakeholders should be understand project goals and objectives and the project needs to have strong engagement & analysis practices and must have built effective conflict resolution plan for the further projects.