In search of Social Value
Advances in Project Management
SERIES ARTICLE
By Prof Darren Dalcher
Director, National Centre for Project Management
Lancaster University Management School
United Kingdom
Alternative technologies and divergent project options are traditionally evaluated in terms of the estimated costs incurred whilst undertaking the proposed action and perceived benefits, or the potential for gained value, that may accrue as a result; and can thus be used as a proxy for determining the desirability of an action (Dalcher, 2012). Given that all choices entail balancing likely costs and benefits, the ability to consider and compare such elements, enhances informed decision making by estimating the relative strengths, weaknesses and feasibility of the recommended alternatives and projected actions.
Cost-benefit Analysis has been long-established as a tool to consider the costs and effects of a range of alternative interventions, particularly useful when all effects can be valued in monetary terms. Yet, with an ever-greater emphasis on using projects to deliver beneficial change (Dalcher, 2019), there is a need to encompass a growing range of interests and perspectives, thereby confounding the act of comparing the projected benefits (Dalcher 2017). Moreover, focusing on a narrow range of technical or technological concerns defined in purely monetary or economic terms is clearly insufficient for assessing the wider impacts and potential effects of proposed actions on ever-expanding collections of groups and intersecting ecosystems of stakeholders, settings and interests (Dalcher, 2014; 2020). Addressing social needs and concerns offers one such way forward.
The introduction of social value
In 2012, the UK introduced innovative Social Value legislation to improve the procurement of public services. The Public Services (Social Value) Act (2012) requires public bodies to consider how the goods and services they are procuring can improve social, economic and environmental well-being. The requirement that organisations should consider social value at the earliest opportunity, during the initial stages of procurement when strategic business cases are being formulated, implies that social value should not be an afterthought of planning and investment. In other words, the act expands the range of considerations, by requiring commissioners and procurers to secure a wider combination of economic, social and environmental benefits when buying services.
New UK legislation on Public Procurement, released in 2023, which has come into effect in early 2025, builds on the way the public sector thinks about securing such social benefits. Rather than award contracts on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender, the legislation requires procurement teams to award contracts on the basis of the most advantageous tender, whilst also emphasising the critical importance of having regard for maximising the public benefit.
Social value extends beyond financial metrics to encompass other impacts of deploying technology, interventions or change on the organisation, wider community, society and the environment. Social value entails contributing meaningfully and positively to the communities within which we work and live. It can therefore be viewed as an attempt to quantity the positive (and negative) impacts and effects of our proposed contributions and change on systems, people, communities and settings as part of actions that endeavour to improve the world.
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Editor’s note: The PMWJ Advances in Project Management series includes articles by authors of program and project management books published by Routledge publishers. Each month an introduction to the current article is provided by series editor Prof Darren Dalcher, who is also the editor of the Routledge series of books on new and emerging concepts in PM. Prof Dalcher’s article is an introduction to the invited paper this month in the PMWJ.
How to cite this paper: Dalcher, D. (2025). Thinking strategically: In search of Social Value, Advances in Project Management Series, PM World Journal, Volume XIV, Issue VI, June. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/pmwj153-Jun2025-Dalcher-Thinking-strategically-In-search-of-Social-Value.pdf
About the Author
Darren Dalcher, PhD
Author, Professor, Series Editor
Director, National Centre for Project Management
Lancaster University Management School, UK
Prof Darren Dalcher, Ph.D., HonFAPM, FRSA, FBCS, CITP, FCMI, SMIEEE, SFHEA, MINCOSE is Professor in Strategic Project Management at Lancaster University, and founder and Director of the National Centre for Project Management (NCPM) in the UK. He has been named by the Association for Project Management (APM) as one of the top 10 “movers and shapers” in project management and was voted Project Magazine’s “Academic of the Year” for his contribution in “integrating and weaving academic work with practice”. Following industrial and consultancy experience in managing IT projects, Professor Dalcher gained his PhD in Software Engineering from King’s College, University of London.
Professor Dalcher has written over 300 papers and book chapters on project management and software engineering. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, a leading international software engineering journal. He is the editor of the book series, Advances in Project Management, published by Routledge and of the companion series Fundamentals of Project Management. Heavily involved in a variety of research projects and subjects, Professor Dalcher has built a reputation as leader and innovator in the areas of practice-based education and reflection in project management. He works with many major industrial and commercial organisations and government bodies.
Darren is an Honorary Fellow of the APM, a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and the Royal Society of Arts, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), the British Academy of Management and the International Council on Systems Engineering. He is a Chartered IT Practitioner. He sits on numerous senior research and professional boards, including The PMI Academic Insight Team, the CMI Academic Council and the APM Group Ethics and Standards Governance Board as well as the British Library Management Book of the Year Panel. He is the Academic Advisor, author and co-Editor of the highly influential 7th edition of the APM Body of Knowledge. Prof Dalcher is an academic advisor for the PM World Journal. He can be contacted at d.dalcher@lancaster.ac.uk.
He was the Academic Advisor, author and co-Editor of the highly influential 7th edition of the APM Body of Knowledge. His books, all published by Routledge, include Leading the Project Revolution: Reframing the Human Dynamics of Successful Projects (December 2018); Managing Projects in a World of People, Strategy and Change (August 2018) ; The Evolution of Project Management Practice: From Programmes and Contracts to Benefits and Change (September 2017); Further Advances in Project Management: Guided Exploration in Unfamiliar Landscapes (December 2016); and Advances in Project Management: Narrated Journeys in Uncharted Territory (August 2016). His book titled “Rethinking Project Management for a Dynamic and Digital World” was published by Routledge in 2022.
To view other works by Prof Darren Dalcher, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/darren-dalcher/.
