A knowledge management approach to innovation and learning in the construction industry

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to summarise a Doctor of Philosophy research study. The purpose is to provide a summary of the scope, literature review, main issues raised in the thesis, the application of a two phase action research methodology, key research findings and potential areas for future research. Design/methodology/approach -The research investigates the role of knowledge management (KM) in supporting innovation and learning in the construction industry. The research is carried out in two phases. Phase 1 employs a grounded theory methodology to develop and map out the current state of knowledge-related activities being undertaken in two leading Australian construction organisations. This is developed into a model that shows that the segregation between three crucial components -people, process and technology -of an organisation is required to successfully carry out construction work. Phase 2 utilises soft system methodology (SSM) as a KM tool to identify the gap between organisations' internal and external knowledge sources. This gap is significant as it restricts the pull of knowledge from external knowledge sources. Findings -This investigation provides a model to achieve KM initiatives through adoption of SSM. This results in an improvement in the integration of people, process and technology within an organisation, an increase in the capacity of the organisation to pull external knowledge, and thereby improve its own internal knowledge bank. All these improvements help an organisation to transform itself into a learning organisation that can continually adapt and innovate. Practical implications -KM research is relatively new in the construction industry. This research has significantly added to the existing body of knowledge in the domain of KM by effectively linking KM with innovation and learning. This provides a strong case for employing KM in order to make innovation a regular phenomenon within the construction industry and encouraging organisations to transform themselves into learning organisations. Originality/value -This paper provides practitioners with an insight into how KM can be applied in project management (PM)-oriented organisations. Also the research explores an identified gap between PM research and practice, and argues that industry needs to effectively work in collaboration with knowledge sources found in academia. The paper also demonstrates that SSM can be used to create artefacts of knowledge.

Innovation in construction firms of different sizes: drivers and strategies

“…Smaller construction firms prove to be more innovative in this particular area. Existing studies on general innovation, such as McAdam (2000) and Lööf and Heshmati (2002), and those on construction innovation, such as Egbu (2004) and Maqsood and Finegan (2009), believe that knowledge and knowledge management have an important contribution to innovation success. Knowledge can be viewed as intellectual resource of innovation.…”

Innovation Enablers for Innovation Teams - A Review

“…Principles, referring to a higher level of research that is more abstract or related to ideas and practices, refer to tools and techniques to be used (Rogers, 1998) for meaningful learning (e.g. customer knowledge management to collect valuable information from the customers) (Coviello and Joseph, 2012;Gibbert et al, 2002;Hidalgo and Albors, 2008;Johannessen, 2008;McGurk and Baron, 2012), to establish measurement tools for performance (Chourides et al, 2003) and to identify gaps organizations' internal and external knowledge by focusing on people, processes and technology (Maqsood and Finegan, 2009). Both exploration and exploitation have significant effects on innovation, and leaders play an important role in establishing the organizational conditions and infrastructure that facilitates KM (Donate and Guadamillas, 2011), such as ICT (Cormican and O'Sullivan, 2000;López-Nicolás and Merono-Cerdán, 2011;Smith et al, 2008).…”

Knowledge management in the construction industry: state of the art and trends in research

“…It can thus be said that knowledge gained from and lessons learned from different construction projects are not systematically integrated into the firm's memory, and this means that work that has already been done must be repeated, solutions to problems must be reinvented, and time is wasted (Maqsood, 2006).…”