150 Int. J. Applied Systemic Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Critical features for project stakeholder management: a systematic literature review Hamid Aladpoosh*, Awaluddin Mohamed Shaharoun and Muhamad Zameri b. Mat Saman Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia E-mail: aladpoosh.hamid@gmail.com E-mail: awaludin@ic.utm.my E-mail: zameri@fkm.utm.my *Corresponding author Abstract: Many projects fail to achieve their objectives due to weaknesses in stakeholder management (SM). The lack of formal SM in projects and the weaknesses of the qualitative methods of SM are two important issues that are reported in the literature. The paper presents a critical review of the existing literature, addresses stakeholder notion, and related issues within two different schools of thoughts. It proposes to advocate that the management of stakeholders should improve its position to a formal process, and plays a role that is more accountable and align with the project execution. This paper aims to contribute to SM research by comparing the existing SM frameworks, and suggests what should be developed to improve it in projects. The research proposal is based on the researchers’ experience, which is supported by the literature feedback to answer the question relating to what are the features of an effective SM in projects. Keywords: project stakeholder management; stakeholder management framework; stakeholder relationship. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Aladpoosh, H., Shaharoun, A.M. and Saman, M.Z.b.M. (2012) ‘Critical features for project stakeholder management: a systematic literature review’, Int. J. Applied Systemic Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp.150–167. Biographical notes: Hamid Aladpoosh has been employed with the National Iranian Petrochemical Co. for the last 20 years. He received his PhD in Project Management from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in 2012. Awaluddin Mohamed Shaharoun is Professor and Dean of UTM Razak School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, City Campus, UTM. Muhamad Zameri b. Mat Saman is Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial and Manu. Eng., Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UTM.