Sustainability in project management for large engineering projects in Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the inclusion of sustainability in project management for large engineering projects in Africa. The sector in which this is explored is mining. This is an explorative, qualitative study with an interpretivist philosophy employed. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with project managers and project clients. 18 interviews were conducted with participants using an interview guide as an instrument. The findings showed that engagement with local stakeholders is paramount to the inclusion of sustainability and that this holds more importance than environmental considerations for mining projects in Africa. It also revealed the historic, inconsistent expectations around social responsibility between project managers and project clients as a limitation for accountability of social aspects of sustainability. Research limitations were that only large-scale projects were considered for this study and the results may not be directly transferable to smaller projects, the extent to which projects must spend on social endeavours to maximise project was not obtained and the organisational changes required to adjust to these findings need to be explored in more detail. Practical implications are that project management organisations must employ strategies and bring in capabilities to better enable them to attend to social issues