Improving Satisfaction of Public Engagement for Mega Development Projects through Stakeholder Identification

Purpose – Public engagement (PE) has been increasingly prevalent for mega development projects in Hong Kong. It is encouraged to collect different opinions from the society, integrate the ideas, establish consensus among multiple stakeholders, gain the final support from the society, and enhance the project performance from the public view. However, it is difficult to take into account of all of the needs and wants of multiple stakeholders by balancing the diversified power and interests in the engagement process. For example, environmental groups as an interesting group may only concern about the environmental protection by the elimination of proposed development, some residences may simply want to accelerate the urban redevelopment for upgrading their living environment, the government with the legitimate power concentrates on the regulation and policy, etc. In order to improve the project performance in the society, main characteristics of the stakeholder (power and interest) are adopted to identify multiple representative stakeholders in PE projects. The paper aims to investigate the complicated relationships among stakeholder identification (power and interest) and final satisfaction of PE for construction projects in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach – In this study, a questionnaire survey was designed to investigate the relationships between stakeholder identification (power and interest) and PE satisfaction. Purposive sampling was adopted in which respondents were eligible only if (1) they had direct PE experience, such as focus group, workshop or public forum, for mega development projects; and (2) they had affected or been affected by the PE projects at the time when they filled in the survey. In order to understand the complicated relationships among stakeholder identification and final satisfaction, reliability analysis and correlation analysis were adopted by using the software SPSS version 19.0.Findings – This paper has identified five types of stakeholder power (i.e., coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent powers), and two types of stakeholder interest (i.e., affected interest and affecting interest). The study indicated that (1) coercive power had a positive significant relation with legitimate power, while reward power, legitimate power, expert power and referent power were significantly interrelated; (2) affected interest significantly related to affecting interest ; (3) legitimate power had a significant relationship to affected interest, and expert power related to affecting interest positively; and (4) PE satisfaction had a significant and positive relationship with reward power and referent power, and negatively related to affected interest.Originality/value of paper - To enchance stakeholder satisfaction on PE projects, PE initiator, such as government, is recommended to delegate more decision making authority to the public and balance the power distribution in the PE activities. The governmental departments and project team are expected to be engaged directly in the PE process, in which reputable stakeholders (such as social workers, district council members, and community representatives) are encouraged to be involved. To achieve high satisfaction level, the PE organizers are suggested to actively respond the needs of the affected stakeholders and gain common interest and goals which could satisfy all internal stakeholders(e.g., local residents, village representatives, local business organizations, etc.). Furthermore, the environmental impact and social responsibility that may affect the PE decision making are suggested to be emphasized and promoted through PE projects. In sum, the results are expected to improve the satisfaction of multiple stakeholders and benefit the PE development in construction projects not only in Hong Kong but also for other countries worldwide.