Pragmatic framework of programme organizational capability for delivering megaprojects at design and construction phases: a Chinese client perspective

Abstract

The number of construction megaprojects, with costs exceeding RMB50 billion (nearly USD800 million), hasincreased exponentially in China in the past two decades because of outstanding economic achievements and fasturbanization. However, these projects are usually beset with underperformance problems, such as cost overruns,safety incidents, functional and quality defects, and poor environmental and sustainable performance. Pro-gramme management has been increasingly advocated as a pragmatic approach through the centralized coordi-nated management to improve megaproject performance at the overall organizational level. This paper reports apragmatic framework of programme organizational capability comprising 24 factors based on a case study of theShanghai Expo construction. The 24 programme organizational factors (POFs) identified from the literaturereview and interviews are grouped into three categories in terms of organizational capability theory, organiz-ational contextual capability, organizational core capacity and organizational motivational capability. They rep-resent three kinds of organizational capabilities for the success of construction megaprojects in China from theclient’s perspective. In addition, archival evidence related to the operation of the 24 POFs in the case study wasfurther examined, which confirmed the usefulness and validity of the developed framework in this study. Find-ings of this study provide an overall picture for scholars and practitioners to appreciate key issues of programmeorganization in managing megaprojects.