Kim, J H and Fisher, N (2001) Knowledge management for small occasional construction industry clients: A theoretical framework. In: Akintoye, A (ed.) Proceedings of 17th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2001, Salford, UK.
Abstract
The role of a client has significant impacts on construction project performance. Major regular clients (the project owner) can afford in-house expertise to play the role as the client's representative (also called the project sponsor), to enhance the quality, value for money and suitability of the building procured. However, small occasional clients (SOCs) are not likely to enjoy the advantages stated above due to limited budgets and the occasional commissioning of projects. For this reason, it has been said that SOCs show a lack of knowledge that is necessary to act effectively as the client. To counteract the disadvantage, the theories and practices of knowledge management (KM) seem to present a logical way to support SOCs to acquire knowledge. Stemming from organizational competence theory, it could, in part, be adopted to facilitate KM for SOCs. Hence, this paper not only presents a review of several KM theories that appear to offer benefits, but it also addresses the limitations, supplemented by a societal-approached theory. The paper concludes with a societal-approached domain model to facilitate KM for SOCs, which is merely a basis for further research. The entire research framework will be briefly mentioned in the conclusion.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | client; knowledge management; facilitator |
| Index terms: | knowledge management, value-for-money, suitability, construction industry, commissioning, construction project, competence, facilitator, owner, project sponsor |
| Subjects: | practitioner, professional development, personnel development, evaluation, production management, completion, industry analysis, design criteria, sociology |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Information Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Value Management, Human Resources, Quality Management, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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