Managing change in megaprojects

Management of change is an important aspect of managing any construction project. Much of the literature on management of change in projects concerns changes managed as variations to construction contracts. These changes may be construed as first-order changes. On occasion, project changes are so radical that they cannot be managed as variations to the construction contract. Such radical changes are sometimes referred to as second-order changes. There is limited research undertaken about second-order changes in megaprojects. We argue that second-order changes in megaprojects can be analysed and explained using mainstream literature about managing organisational change. Hence, we adopted a systematic literature review methodology to determine a conceptual framework for managing radical changes in megaprojects. Specifically, an in-depth review of 25 organisational change management (CM) models was conducted. This resulted in the identification of the Association of Change Management Professionals’ Standard for Change Management (ACMP-SCM) as an appropriate model with which management of change in megaprojects can be analysed. We argue that with the ACMP-SCM, we can critique how changes have been managed in past megaprojects as well as design and implement changes better in future megaprojects.