Maqsood, T; Walker, D H T and Finegan, A D (2005) The role of knowledge management in enhancing knowledge pull in the construction organisation to deliver innovation: A case study. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 21st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2005, London, UK.
Abstract
Knowledge pull has become an essential requirement for construction organisations to survive in knowledge era. As more industries recognizing knowledge as a vital sustainable asset, the construction industry cannot afford to lag behind. This paper argues that implementing knowledge management principles in the organisation would generate forces within the organisation enabling the pull of knowledge from outside the organisation to within and exploit it to deliver innovation. This would pave the way for external sources of knowledge and innovation, like universities or research centres, to work closely with the industry and would ensure that useful and beneficial academic research would not go unnoticed. The paper provides an account of a case where a specific construction organisation has benefited from the effort of an employee who constantly strived to establish a link with the external innovative knowledge by attending research conferences. As a result external knowledge of an innovative product was introduced into the organisation and used on a construction project to deliver significant benefits that resulted in enhanced profitability. Soft System Methodology (SSM) has been used to undertake this case study and to develop deeper understanding of the issues involved. The paper argues that such beneficial links with the external research and knowledge bodies must be better understood and encouraged, and knowledge management provides the organisation with the tools and techniques to achieve this.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | knowledge management; innovation; research; soft systems methodology |
| Index terms: | construction industry, knowledge management, methodology, construction project, profitability, conference, construction organization, case study, soft systems methodology, research centre |
| Subjects: | research methods, production management, professional development, industry analysis, data collection methods, research dissemination and communication, construction type, organization, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Information Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Construction Technology |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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