Olomolaiye, A and Egbu, C (2005) The impact of human resource policies and practices on knowledge management in the construction industry. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 21st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2005, London, UK.
Abstract
In recent times, there has been increased awareness that organisational knowledge might be the key to organisation success. In most construction organisations such knowledge is dispersed and fragmented, since much of it exists in diffuse social networks. To prevent failure, knowledge management (KM) has to be properly implemented in organisations. This invariably implies that construction organisations must address the needs of workers who supply this knowledge if they are to successfully exploit their skills. The extent to which organisations will be willing to co-operate in this process would depend to a great extent on the nature of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices. This paper, which is based on an empirical investigation of the role of HRM in KM, analyses the problems related to KM and the probable solutions through HRM. It argues that since knowledge is the unique human capability of making meaning from information, employees should be the focus of any KM initiatives. The consequences of poor HRM practices on KM initiatives are discussed and some observations are made about the importance of a 'no-blame' culture and trust to effective KM within construction organisations.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | human resource management; knowledge management; organisational culture; trust |
| Index terms: | human resource, investigation, construction industry, organizational culture, knowledge management, construction organization, social network, meaning, human resource management |
| Subjects: | sociology, industry analysis, management, professional development, data collection methods, organization |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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