Campbell, J M and Smith, S D (2007) Knowledge transfer of safety critical information by the internet. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 23rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2007, Belfast, UK.
Abstract
Poor management and dissemination of existing safety knowledge threaten the UK construction industry. Skill shortages and the retirement of the 'baby boom' workforce are leaving companies no alternative other than reliance on young less experienced engineers. This paper demonstrates how and to what degree safety critical knowledge can be transferred to the IT and internet literate new generation. A project overview of a case based reasoning (CBR) safety tool as developed by the University of Edinburgh is presented. The tool aids classification of work tasks then searches a database to retrieve a selection of control measures / hazard mitigations that have been used in similar past work tasks. The CBR tool has been populated with data from infrastructure construction and maintenance tasks. The role of online surveys in past research is highlighted and a case study using online volunteers is presented. Volunteers with a range of engineering experience were asked to read a 'real life' method statement from a construction project and assign control measures with the aid of the CBR tool. Results and overall trends of the case study show what degree safety critical knowledge was successfully transferred. Lastly, the use of internet and CBR collaboration is argued for the purpose of education and training of engineers in the Construction Industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | knowledge management; risk management; safety; internet; case based reasoning |
| Index terms: | infrastructure construction, internet, construction industry, knowledge management, education and training, dissemination, collaboration, construction project, risk management, knowledge transfer, mitigation, volunteer, engineer, database, survey, safety critical, skill shortage, case-based reasoning, case study |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, professional education, cognitive psychology, data management, professional development, knowledge translation, financial risk, production management, health safety and environment, civil engineering, management, practitioner, computing systems, research dissemination and communication, data collection methods, profession, risk assessment |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Risk Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Engineering Principles, Cost Management, Health and Safety, Organizational Design, Education, Human Resources, Digital Applications |
| 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