Williams, J; Fugar, F and Adinyira, E (2023) Exploring enablers of health and safety knowledge transfer from construction companies to project host communities. International Journal of Construction Management, 23(10), pp. 1737-1745. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
The importance of knowledge transfer as a strategic asset for organisations has long been recognised by researchers and practitioners. Therefore, this study aims to identify factors that will enable the transfer of health and safety knowledge from construction companies to project host communities in Ghana. In total, 250 contractors comprising 155 building contractors and 95 road contractors took part in the survey. Stratified simple random sampling technique was adopted in selecting the companies in the survey, and principal component analysis was the analytical method employed. Six enablers of knowledge transfer from a construction company to the community were established. Namely, individuals' ability to use knowledge, collaboration, networking, communication, trust, and local content inclusion. It is expected that this study's findings would help contractors transfer valuable knowledge to communities in which they operate. It would also inform policymakers in dealing with external knowledge transfer from the construction industry. This study is the first attempt in a developing country like Ghana to provide the construction industry with the enablers of knowledge transfer from the construction industry to a different social system (project host communities).
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | health and safety; knowledge enablers; knowledge management; knowledge transfer |
| Index terms: | health and safety, developing country, survey, construction company, networking, knowledge transfer, practitioner, collaboration, knowledge management, building contractor, Ghana, social system, sampling, principal component analysis, construction industry |
| Subjects: | communication, organization, research dissemination and communication, data collection methods, practitioner, statistical analysis, industry analysis, management, professional development, development economics, Geography, health safety and environment, social theory |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Organizational Design, Digital Applications, International Construction |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here