Boyd, D; Xiao, H and Chinyio, E (2005) Can knowledge-event approach work in construction SMEs? In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 21st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2005, London, UK.
Abstract
Knowledge management (KM) is still new to the construction industry and has not been exploited fully, especially in SMEs. There are various reasons for this, among which is the complexity of and the amount of resources needed for current approaches to KM. This paper reports on the success of a new approach to KM designed for SMEs called Knowledge-Event Management (KEM) working with the oral and social world of construction. KEM is a simple and low cost yet robust approach for KM which uses audio diaries to capture knowledge events and a debriefing technique to extract the learning and knowledge from the events. The approach was tested with 12 construction SMEs across the country and the outcome was successful in terms of effectiveness and practicality. Following these trials, focus group meetings with the partnering companies and dissemination workshops with professional organisations were held to promote and evaluate the approach. The evaluation used a questionnaire survey to seek the industry's opinions on this approach. The survey results from 74 respondents are provided and these show that practitioners welcome this approach which they found useful and worth fitting into their routine work. The survey also assessed the ways of disseminating learning generated from KM practice, and identified several enablers and barriers to KM in construction SMEs.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | knowledge management; knowledge-event; SME; survey |
| Index terms: | partnering, workshop, routine, focus group, low cost, survey, diary, dissemination, practitioner, effectiveness, questionnaire, construction industry, complexity, knowledge management |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, construction type, practitioner, bidding, performance management, professional development, knowledge translation, sociology, partnership management, systems engineering, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Organizational Design, Research Practice, Information Management, Engineering Principles, Procurement, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management |
| 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