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Stakeholder engagement is an under theorized area of construction project management research. Often simplified as an act of corporate social responsibility, the complexity of the engagement concept, its` processes and consequences evades closer scrutiny and analysis. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of stakeholder engagement to reveal its` theoretical and practical complexity; two complimentary models of stakeholder engagement (Greenwood, 2007; Lane and Devin, 2018) being mobilized to empirical data from a hospital case study project. The result is a retheorization of stakeholder engagement as a complex, entwining process of responsibility, organizational action and work package requirements where stakeholder engagement and agency (i.e. ethical treatment of stakeholders) are understood as separate variables that result in shifts between responsible, paternalistic, neoclassic and strategic behaviours. The contribution lies in a more sophisticated understanding of stakeholder engagement being attained: shifts between stakeholder engagement and agency defining relations between parties in CSR terms; the ethical aspirations of AEC organizations being impacted by daily project activities; the unique characteristics of stakeholder engagement in construction (e.g. binding of party interests; effect of subcontractor entry; collective blame/praise) being brought into focus. Resulting recommendations include periodic review of engagement activity to ensure the CSR strategic objectives of organisations are aligned to stakeholder engagement work.

This paper engages with stakeholder management practices from the building phase of hospital construction projects to analyse the methods employed by contractor and client in a construction project context. A series of vignettes illustrating stakeholder management practices in action are combined with the insights of a Client Relations Manager with direct responsibility for stakeholder management affairs. The paper provides practical guidance for practitioners and explores how stakeholder management issues revolve around the emerging event, with a supporting apparatus to facilitate communication and collaboration being critical to stakeholder interests and concerns being addressed. The insights are valuable for multiple health facility contexts where obtaining and maintaining stakeholder support is important.

A preemptive identification of issues combined with knowledge sharing activities among project stakeholders can enable infection control requirements to be properly understood and addressed. Such initiatives should also reference existing infection control regulatory guidance and advice.

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