Deliberate stakeholder engagement: a framework of considerations for integrated asset management of water utilities

Abstract

The importance of stakeholder engagement in asset management is widely accepted and emphasised. Nonetheless, in asset management practice, stakeholder engagement is still often applied in an unsystematised and ad hoc manner. By proposing a framework of considerations for the deliberate design of stakeholder engagement, this study aims to contribute to the realisation of integrated asset management by offering a means to explicate the often implicit considerations regarding stakeholder engagement. By providing a conceptual exploration, as well as an analysis of three asset management cases in the Netherlands, this article provides building blocks for deliberate stakeholder engagement, guided by consideration of the mission, local context, and available time. Taking the daily reality of asset managers as a reference, this study develops a synthesis between literature on stakeholder engagement and asset management, hereby showing that both material and relational considerations should be made deliberately in all phases of an asset management project.