Complexity Management of Emergency Projects from the Perspective of Complex Adaptive Systems Theory—The Case of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai)

As the construction of emergency projects is of great significance for pandemic control, it has received special attention in the project management realm. Emergency projects possess special complexities that distinguish them from general projects, while extant research focuses on rapid construction techniques but ignores project complexity and its management. In this regard, this study identifies the various aspects of the emergency project complexity and figures out the adaptive strategies. Based on the complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory, a typical emergency project in Shanghai, China, named the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), has been selected to demonstrate the process of complexity identification and the adaptive strategies extraction through two-stage content analysis. The results suggest that the complexity of the process of emergency project construction involves six dimensions: goal complexity, organizational complexity, task complexity, streamline complexity, professional systems complexity, and environmental complexity. Based on the CAS theory, adaptive strategies can be divided into two categories: proactive and reactive behavior, which should be combined to deal with the aforementioned complexities. This research promotes a better understanding of the complexity of emergency projects and extracts the adaptive behaviors to handle project complexity from the perspective of contractors, to help speed up the construction schedule.