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Investigation Into The Adoption Of Knowledge Management (km) In The Nigerian Industry Construction Industry
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CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Background of the Study
According to Botha,
D.F (2004) knowledge management is a process of systematic management of
vital knowledge and its associated process of creating, gathering,
organizing diffusion, use and exploitation. It requires turning personal
knowledge into corporate knowledge that can be widely shared throughout
the organisation. Projects are typically delivered by a temporary
organisation comprising designers, consultants, contractors, supplier
and others. The need for knowledge management (KM) is particularly
relevant to the construction industry which now faces many challenges.
These include economic swings, new markets emerging in the global
economy, increasing competition, the impact of technology, new and
increasing demands from clients, customers and society, and the
requirement to maintain a highly skilled workforce at all levels (Egbu
and Robinson 2005). Contracting firms are becoming increasingly involved
in challenging and complex, knowledge-intensive procurement routes such
as management contracting, design and build, joint ventures, public
private partnerships as well as the traditional procurement route.
According to Quintas (2005) there are two potentially conflicting
objectives of Knowledge Management, to build knowledge bases
cumulatively and to learn from past experience; and to ensure learning
beyond core areas, generating the capability to assimilate new knowledge
in order to be able to respond to change. In a study of American
contractors, Fisher et al. (1998) identified a number of reasons for
implementing Knowledge Management practices as: high staff turnover
leading to loss of experience; and large size of organisations make
sharing knowledge difficult. Construction organisations have garnered
much attention in terms of the potential benefits of knowledge
management, with little evidence of how to actually manage knowledge in
practice.
A lack of understanding of both knowledge and its
subsequent management within the industry indicates the need for further
empirical research in the field (Robinson et al. 2005). The types of
organisation which shall be given consideration in this research are
main contractors.
Traditionally, these organisations were
labour-intensive employing a full workforce of labourers and tradesmen
to execute the construction phase of a project on a building site. Many
of these companies have now moved from being a ‘building company’
towards directly employing a core professional and management team to
lead teams of outsourced contractors. The nature of the industry
requires them to establish temporary organisational structures at
dispersed geographical locations, frequently at a distance from central
management (Raiden and Dainty 2006). Against the backdrop of an industry
which is highly competitive and exhibits low levels of research, the
purpose of this, is to present ongoing research into knowledge
management within the leading Nigerian construction industries.
Commencing with a background to the Nigerian construction industry this
research shall also present a review of literature related to Knowledge
Management in construction, progress in the research to-date, the
proposed research methodology and future research activities.
1.2 Statement of the problem
The
construction industry is recognized as being poor at learning on a
consistent basis and improving performance and is notoriously slow in
adapting to progressive change. Two categories requiring knowledge
management in the construction industry have been identified; within
projects across temporary, multi-discipline project organizations; and
within individual firms. It is accepted that there may be much greater
potential for knowledge management within individual companies. Despite
the recognized need to adopt knowledge management, it is considered to
in its infancy in the construction industry and is soon as a recent and
evolving practice for construction organizations.
The lack of a
working definition of knowledge within construction organization and
awareness of the importance of potential advantages of knowledge
management reflects a casual approach, and indicates the need for
further exploration of knowledge and knowledge management related
issues.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The main Aim of this research is to investigate the Adoption of knowledge management in the Nigeria construction industry. The research examined the area of the construction industry that will improve as a result of the contribution of knowledge management. Data for the analysis were collected through questionnaire Administration on construction professionals. 60questionnaires where administered, 50 were retrieved and analysed using simple percentile and relative Important index. The study revea ... Continue reading---
