External Stakeholders’ Management: A Qualitative Analysis of Era’s Right Of Way Clearance for Projects around Debre Birhan Town

Abstract

This research studied the management of road construction project’s ROW clearance process by the external stakeholders involved on road construction Projects around Debre Birhan Town under Ethiopian Roads authority. Even though there are different many factors related to the internal stakeholders being the reason for delays of ERA’s road projects, the research objectives are on those problems related to external stakeholder’s roles, factors influencing their management and possible improvements on the management techniques to impact the delay of road construction projects by improving the external stakeholders. To achieve these objectives, a literature review on the respective related subject matter were conducted in addition to finding related sources of formulating the questionnaires. Not only that, case studies on five road projects was conducted, with desk studies on the previously completed road projects, client’s ROW assessment reports and other relevant documents were investigated. With interview responses from professionals involved in different road construction project’s stakeholders have been rigorously assessed. The research uses a qualitative and descriptive analysis mixing with minor quantitative methods of analyzing responses that were adopted collected from questionnaires. The research used a purposive sampling technique; as the ROW clearance process of road construction project involved a specific group of stakeholders to conduct the data collection which is mainly from questionnaires, interviews and discussions with key stakeholders. The research finds out that most of the case studied projects found to be delayed due to delayed ROW clearance by those external stakeholders that have poor knowledge of their roles. Lack of planning of tasks and poor time managements are among the findings of the research. The improvement on planning techniques, time management and consistent regulation of ROW assessment works were recommended as part of improving the ROW clearance process by external stakeholders.