An Analysis Of The Social Factors Affecting The Success Of A Project And The Impact Of Higher Level Factors On The Social Setting (Essay Sample)

An analysis of the Social Factors affecting the success of a project and the Impact of higher level factors on the social setting
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Introduction
According to Heerkens (2002) project management is the process of prudently planning or projecting, motivating, controlling and organizing resources to attain specific goals as well as meet a definite criteria. (Heerkens) further explains that a project is a temporary undertaking which is intended to create a unique product or service with a definite commencement and end which is embarked on to meet exclusive goals and objectives, usually to make profit. Taking into account the problems encountered in ensuring the success of a project, the following essay seeks to identify and elaborate on some of the social factors that have a certain amount of influence on the success of a project.
Body
Social factors that impact the success of a project
Kerzner (2001) explains that social factors encompass society members who may be directly or indirectly involved in a particular project. Their impact on the success or failure of a project arises from differences in ethnicity and language, gender, religion and social division. The following are some of the factors that arise from differences.
* Religion, ethnic, race and custom based hostility
According to Jha (2013) social-cultural differences among project partakers are the leading cause of ethnic conflict in project management. The impact of ethnicity and race in project undertakings may be characterised by conflicts that arise from differences in value, beliefs, and attitudes of employees from different communities. Diversity in religion beliefs may also contribute to conflicts which negatively affects the results expected from a particular project. In the long run, employees form ethnic, race and religion oriented groups religion guided groups instead of work oriented groups which if not dealt with early enough may jeopardise the success of a project. The project manager may find it difficult to unite employees towards a common goal if such differences are allowed to continue for a long time. According to Low & Ong (2014), the outcome of ethnic, racial and religious differences is identified in employees’ reluctance in working in teams and lack of motivation for employees who fall within the social group that makes up the minority groups. (Low & Ong) further argue that project managers should adopt a living system approach which promotes a process based way of thinking instead of the traditional control-oriented way of thought. The living system approach changes the mind-set of employees and diverts their attention towards goals and objectives of a project.
* Security of stakeholders
According to Dvir (2009), every stakeholder in a particular project usually has a vested interest in the result of a project. A project manager is usually endowed with the task of making sure that all stakeholders are kept in the loop as well as making sure that all their wishes are fulfilled. The success of a project is partly dependent on a project manager’s ability to effectively engage stakeholders. Aftab & Ade (2011) explains that the most crucial task of a project manager is to identify the key stakeholders of a particular project, which enables him/her to collaborate with his/her project team when drafting the initial project plan. (Aftad) further depicts that key stakeholders of a project decide on the viability of undertaking a particular project based on the project plan presented by a project manager. Other than the project manager ability to engage stakeholders, sustaining sponsors of a project also have the responsibility of promoting a project. Executive sponsors promote a project by initiating a top down change which then streams up from mid-level executives to the first level executives who then endorse the project.
* Overestimation of beneficiaries
Wakhid (2002) depicts that overestimation of beneficiaries occurs when there are overlaps between projects; hence, some project beneficiaries receive more than one benefit and are tallied as having received singular benefits. (Wakhid) further explains that overestimation of benefits culminates in misleading results in which makes it difficult for organizations to budget for future cost. Benefactors end up tarnishing the reputation of individual and organizational project sponsors without realising that the project sponsor has no control over multiple benefits received by a single beneficiary. Project managers find it difficult to explain such occurrences to the stakeholders of a project and may seem to be incompetent. Project stakeholders may end up losing funds or not realise the value of their investments thus the choice to terminate a project.
Higher level influences
* Political factors
The impact of policies and politics can be identified in a government’s single most crucial responsibility of establishing and modelling the markets which are used by society in operating individual businesses and enterprises (Phillips and Snead, 2002). As far as development is concerned, a country’s political environment and policies adopted by a government more than often determines the society’s need to set up businesses and develop project ideas. In the event that a government is unable maintain a stable political environment, most project sponsors would not risk to undertake projects with the probable chance of lacking project sponsors. The same thing happens with government policies that limit the extent to which government projects may receive external funding. Such policies leave projects with a limited capital base and end up being terminated.
Economic factors
Income inequality in society and the ability of a government to fulfil its obligation of providing social needs is determined by the wider economic conditions which dictate the predictability of future economic conditions (Yescombe, 2002). The profitability of most projects is determined by the level of competition and consumption patterns of a society in a particular economy. A society that is mostly dependent may be not so profitable for a project since there is minimal dependency on the government.
Technical factors
Technical factors refer to the utilization of technology which includes engineering, construction, equipment installation and operation during the implementation phase of the project objectives (Saladis, 2005). In overseeing this, a project manager has the obligation to collaborate with the society living within the construction area to avoid unfores...