Senaratne, S and Sexton, M G (2004) Managing construction project change in the knowledge age: A case study. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 20th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2004, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
Changes in construction projects are common and can lead to disruptive effects such as project delays, cost overruns and quality deviations. The rework due to unplanned changes can cost 10-15% of contract value. By managing these changes more effectively, these disruptive effects can be minimised or avoided. Previous work has approached this research problem from an information-processing view with the introduction of hard IT based solutions. In this knowledge age, this study argues that effective change management can be brought about by understanding the significant role of knowledge during shared activities such as change problem-solving. In managing change the construction team members bring their tacit and explicit knowledge into the problem situation and it is this knowledge that is captured, converted and shared between the parties during the change process. As such, the study aims to explore the role of knowledge during managing project change in collaborative team settings. The case study method has been selected as the research approach for theory building and testing. The interim findings of the first case study revealed that the different forms of knowledge are created during shared problem-solving activities during construction change events. However, this knowledge remains largely tacit and does not disseminate to the wider organisation due to ineffective codification and learning mechanisms.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case study; knowledge conversion; project change; shared problem-solving |
| Index terms: | case study, project delay, testing, theory building, rework, quality deviation, construction team, conversion, change management, cost overrun, construction project, explicit knowledge |
| Subjects: | quality assurance, knowledge management, project delivery, production management, data science, professional practice, operations management, data collection methods, financial and cost management, management, manufacturing engineering, project controls |
| Topics: | Time Control, Cost Management, Organizational Design, Quality Management, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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