Yu, Chunlin;
(2024)
The strategies of organizational design and capabilities to overcome temporary client managerial obstacles in megaproject delivery.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
Megaprojects have been criticized for poor performance. However, few studies have explored the megaproject delivery from the perspective of temporary client that acts as the leader of the megaproject network. This thesis thus conducts a multi-case study of five temporary clients in five megaprojects in China. It is empirically built upon 103 interviews and substantial documentary data from the: (i) Island Development Programme, (ii) China High-Speed Railway, (iii) Beijing Daxing International Airport Express, (iv) Ecology-Oriented Development Programme, and (v) Dalian Bay Subsea Tunnel. This thesis investigates the managerial obstacles that temporary clients encounter in the megaproject delivery process, temporary clients’ organizational design, as well as their capability development and deployment strategies. This research first identifies a series of managerial obstacles that temporary clients could encounter during megaproject delivery. A cross-case comparison further introduces the fundamental principles on the effective responses to the obstacles. Results demonstrated that temporary clients’ organizational configurations and relationships could take different forms, and their structuring mechanisms may need to be uniquely understood. In addition to constructing the suitable organizational design, seven core organizational capabilities are required to be possessed by temporary clients in delivering megaprojects, which could be deployed as a whole and fully leveraged by integrating them into a three-level capability hierarchical system. The findings further demonstrate that temporary clients orchestrate resource exogenously and endogenously to develop their organizational capabilities through two underlying mechanisms – dynamic resource configuration and recursive learning cycle. To contribute to project and megaproject management literature, knowledge is provided on temporary clients’ managerial obstacles, development and deployment of organizational capabilities, and organizational design. The implication of this work is a set of principles, practices and strategies that can be used by temporary client project practitioners as guidance to leverage their organizational design and capabilities to deliver megaprojects successfully.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The strategies of organizational design and capabilities to overcome temporary client managerial obstacles in megaproject delivery |
| Language: | English |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10185939 |
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