Megaproject Organization and Performance: The Myth and Political Reality

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

What form of organizing work is a megaproject? Why do performance targets in megaprojects regularly slip over time? Can we trace regular slippages in the megaproject performance targets (cost, schedule, scope) back to their organizational structure? These are the central questions that motivate this study. Here, we claim that megaprojects are “meta-organizations”—networks of multiple actors, including individuals, communities, public bodies, and firms collaborating under an identifiable system-level goal (Gulati, Puranam, & Tushman, 2012). The defining attribute of meta-organizations is the absence of employment relationships, or ownership stakes, as sources of authority between its members. Meta-organizations are not, ...