Stakeholders’ Conflicts within Engineering Professional Practice in Bahrain

Engineering practices in Bahrain currently face a significant relationship gap. Research has shown that conflicts in courts are related to conflicts between the stakeholders within the engineering practice field. This research aims to investigate the main reasons behind the conflicts in the engineering practice field and identify several ways to minimize the conflict. Based on a review of the literature on several conflicts between the stakeholders within engineering practice, interviews were conducted with experts involved in those cases. Samples were selected using non-probability sampling using the snowball sampling technique. Analysis of the interviewees demonstrated that the contract, stakeholders’ experiences, project variations, financial aspects, workflow mechanisms, poor supervision, and unexpected aspects were the main reasons behind the conflicts. The analysis identified that strict law; proper stakeholder selection; valid contracts, contract templates, studied workflow mechanisms; precise supervision and thoughtful financial plan are ways to reduce conflicts. The results indicate that engineering practice in Bahrain does have several causes for the conflicts between the stakeholders. On this basis, it is recommended that engineering practice organizations use an electronic contract template to reduce the conflicts between the stakeholders. Further research is needed to identify the reason behind the stakeholder conflicts within different types of projects, which could strengthen the effectiveness of this research paper.

Keywords: Engineering Practice, Stakeholders Conflicts, Engineering, Management.