Managing public-private megaprojects

Paradoxes, complexity, and project design

Journal article (2008)

Authors

A.H. van Marrewijk Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Stewart Clegg University of Technology Sydney
Tyrone Pitsis University of Technology Sydney
Marcel Veenswijk Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Affiliation
External organisation
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

01-08-2008

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

Recent studies show that despite their growing popularity, megaprojects - large-scale, complex projects delivered through various partnerships between public and private organisations - often fail to meet costs estimations, time schedules and project outcomes and are motivated by vested interests which operate against the public interest. This paper presents a more benign and theoretically-grounded view on what goes wrong by comparing the project designs, daily practices, project cultures and management approaches of two recent megaprojects in The Netherlands and Australia, showing how these projects made sense of uncertainty, ambiguity and risk. We conclude that project design and project cultures play a role in determining how managers and partners cooperate to achieve project objectives to a greater or lesser extent.