Can Projects be Processual? A Perspective from Ethics in Stakeholder Engagement for Project Sustainability

It is a research standard to have theories underpinning research. Conceptually, we often read about the theoretical framework as the theoretical skeleton of the research, which can be referred to as the framework of research. This pattern always becomes substantial issues at PhD VIVA (thesis submission), conferences or journal discussions. Theories have been applied in different context; empirical data have been applied in support of theories in different contextual settings. Gaps in researches have sometimes been because of application of theories or methods in different context. When a study lacks theory, the context, imagination and argument are lost. However, process theory (as a theory or philosophy) has not gained considerable attention from authors in project management in general, and has received little or no authors’ attention in infrastructure project management and implementation in particular. Furthermore, there is not yet any evidence of process application in the ethics domain of infrastructure project management. This paper, using an empirical (on-going), constructivist interpretivist approach to study ethics in stakeholder engagement for project sustainability, will contribute to knowledge by deductively establishing the applicability of process theory framing into the project management environment alongside with ethics and stakeholder theories.