Professionalism of construction client organisations

Real estate organisations, whether public or corporate, are operating in a rapidly changing context. This change is not only induced by changes in the work processes accommodated, but also in a changed perspective on client - supplier relationships. Value thinking, total cost of ownership, circularity, increased risk awareness are reflected in new collaborative designs. Performance based contracting, co-creation, integrated contracts are expressions of this development.These new types of collaboration are commonly accepted to cause a different project approach, with adapted roles and responsibilities for both client and contractor. Less attention has been paid to the organisational preconditions in which new project approaches should be embedded in order to safeguard success.The Construction Client Maturity Model has been developed within TU Delft to assess the level of professionalism of construction client organisations. The application of the model in several construction client organisations reflects the existence weak or blind spots of client organisations with respect to several aspects of professionalism.Next to insight in these aspects, further research within TU Delft reveals different elements and responsibilities within the commissioning role to be spread across different departments within one organisation, interfering with clear control and governance structures. Furthermore, the project based governance structure of investment activities, in itself hinders organisational learning.The combination of these issues, causes knowledge acquisition, distribution and organisational learning related to the implementation of new client - supplier relationships to be complicated. Real estate organisations therefore should pay specific attention to both organisational embedding of the required changes and enforcing organisational learning.