The stakeholder challenge: dealing with challenging situations involving stakeholders

Project managers are an occupational group who is exposed to high levels of stress caused by various aspects such as resources and communication or working relationships. One particularly challenging area is the interaction with stakeholders, who are often perceived to ‘be difficult’. With this study, we investigate how project managers cope with challenging situations involving stakeholders in projects. We do this through a qualitative study involving interviews and focus groups to explore the lived experiences of the project managers in specific situations. Our findings suggest that a project manager perspective on stakeholder management is particularly valuable to account for contextual factors such as sources of challenging situations. We propose a project coping model which transfers Lazarus and Folkman’s stress and coping model into the project context and adds the layer of project coping to emphasise the project managers’ perception of accountability and commitment to the project.