“A stakeholder can be perceived to be difficult based on their individual personality traits, as well as role or expectations”.  

Our speaker will share her research project, published earlier in 2018, that focuses on the psycho-social aspects of project management and specifically on how project managers cope with difficult stakeholders. It utilises three different perspectives on this topic: firstly, it identifies which factors create difficult situations; secondly, how these situations impact on the project; and thirdly, how project managers should effectively deal with the difficult situations they encounter.

Right at the beginning of the study an important differentiation was identified; initially it was only intended to only focus on strategies for dealing with difficult stakeholders, however it became quickly obvious that a clarification was necessary in this area. A stakeholder may be difficult in terms of his/her personality or in terms of creating difficult situations for the project manager. Hence the study created three areas that can typically create difficult situations for a project manager in relation to a difficult stakeholder. These three areas can be found within the boundaries of a project as well as outside, and include:

• structural environment
• social environment
• stakeholder personality

For more information and to book your place please visit the APM webinar events page.