STAKEHOLDERS’ ENGAGEMENT AND PROJECT CLOSURE OF CONSTRUCTION FIRMS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Ndubisi, K. A.

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Administration and Management, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Email: kenechukwundubisi@yahoo.com

and

Bagshaw, K. B.

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Administration and Management, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Email: Bagshaw.karibo@ust.edu.ng

ABSTRACT

The study examined the relationship between stakeholders’ engagement and project closure of construction firms in Rivers State, Nigeria. The measures of project closure used are project goal attainment, project quality and long-term impact. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The target population was the 26 construction firms in Rivers State as obtained from the updated directory of finelib.com. However, the study elements were 78 which comprised managers from the operations, Human Resource and Finance departments of the respective 26 construction firms. The study adopted a census sampling technique since the population of the study was relatively small. Data for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire, while the four-point Likert scale was used to measure the responses from the respondents. Data was analysed using inferential statistics such as the Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient Statistics technique was used to test the hypotheses with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 27. The results of the study showed that there is a significant positive relationship between stakeholders engagement and the measures of project closure. The study concludes that stakeholders engagement has a strong relationship with project success of construction firms in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study therefore recommends amongst others that Project managers should ensure that key stakeholders are identified and engaged from the project initiation phase through to completion.

Keywords:     Long-term impact, project goal attainment, project quality, project closure, stakeholders engagement