Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government_11(1)_January

L EX LOCALIS - J OURNAL OF L OCAL S ELF -G OVERNMENT H. Wanivenhaus, J. Kovač, A. Žnidaršič & I. Vrečko: Vienna Construction Projects: Redirection of Project Management Critical Success Factors—More Focus on Stakeholders and Soft Skills Development 351 The APM (2012) defined project stakeholder management as the systematic identification, analysis, planning, and implementation of actions designed to engage with stakeholders. It is a new knowledge area that includes the processes and activities that enable the project manager to ensure that the needs and expectations of the project stakeholders and interested parties are being addressed (Burke, 2013). Project stakeholders include individuals, companies, and organizations affected by the outcome of the project or its management. Stakeholders may become either directly or indirectly involved throughout the project or may function simply as observers. Stakeholders can shift from a passive role to an active member of the team and participate in critical decisions (Kerzner, 2013). Turner (2009) suggested that a necessary condition for project success is to agree on the success criteria with all stakeholders before the project start. He warned that it is very unlikely to win full support of every stakeholder, but if you can make a good stab and earn the respect of key stakeholders, you are well on the way to project success (Müller & Turner, 2010). Building relationships with stakeholders requires identifying who they are, predicting their response to the project, and developing a communication plan to interact with them (Turner, 2009). Similarly, Kerzner (2013) suggested that, on the micro level, we can define stakeholder relationships to management using six processes: identification of the stakeholders, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder information flow, agreements, and stakeholder debriefings. Based on the presented results, we can also confirm the 3rd hypothesis: Project managers in the competitive public sector see the development of soft project management skills and cooperation with stakeholders as the most important elements for further development of the project management environment. This finding is in line with current trends in project management studies, based mainly on the findings from the private sector. 4.3 Leadership Skills as Trending Soft Project Management Skills Interesting cognitions arise from investigating project managers’ opinions about the need for additional attention in the project management field to achieve greater success in the implementation of construction projects. Despite the fact that project members’ motivation and team-oriented project management are among the seven most highly relevant project management methods and measures for project managers, the Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that they are not currently highly influential for effective execution of construction projects. On the other hand, the valued network of project management methods and measures important for the future revealed that both of these methods/measures, together with project description and policy project support, are among the most important