Stakeholder engagement in managing scope change during the execution phase of UK construction projects

The UK construction projects face multiple challenges associated with poor performance, resource inefficiency and skilled labour shortages. It can be time-consuming, stressful and expensive. Construction project management has phases, from planning to scheduling to the build itself. Over the past few decades, few UK construction projects have been conducted according to their plan and budget. Therefore, taking appropriate decisions about every step in the execution phase becomes difficult for construction professionals. The scope is a vital part of project planning that involves specific project goals, deadlines, and budget information. A distinct scope helps stakeholders stay on the same page throughout the project lifecycle. The performance of construction projects is primality driven by its stakeholders. Also, the success of project delivery depends on stakeholder engagement. Hence, there is a need for an organised approach to engaging the stakeholders in managing scope change to improve project performance. This study adopts a qualitative approach with an interpretative stance. A total of 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted in the UK through a stratified random sampling technique. The data gathered was analysed using the NVivo 12 software. The key findings identified from this research are that stakeholders' engagement positively impacts the project scope and helps improve construction project performance. In addition, stakeholder engagement significantly impacts achieving the project time and cost objectives. However, a lack of stakeholder engagement can affect the project's success. The understanding of stakeholder engagement and scope management varied with the different roles of stakeholders. The results further reveal that stakeholder influence on the project scope is unavoidable. The completion of the project is highly dependent on stakeholder engagement within the project. The stakeholders, such as clients, are less experienced than project managers. Therefore, their change request may contain unnecessary demands. These midterm changes and needs could also jeopardise the entire project. Based on the findings from the semi-structured interviews and existing literature, a framework is set out to underline stakeholder engagement to manage scope change and improve construction project performance. Furthermore, the framework demonstrates that such engagement can be valuable in anticipating the expectations of the different stakeholders in managing mid-term changes. Moreover, the framework was validated through semi-structured interviews with four experienced project management professionals and academics who expressed their views on the proposed framework in validation. Finally, the research provides recommendations from both theoretical and practical perspectives to improve stakeholder engagement in managing scope change during the project execution phase.