Social motivations for knowledge sharing in construction companies

In 1965 a political initiative was taken launched to solve the lack of accommodation in Sweden, and during a ten-year period about one million new homes were built-the Million Homes programme. These buildings constitute about one fourth of the entire Swedish building stock and thus have a high societal value. Today they do not always meet current building standards and many are in need of refurbishment. The Million Homes programme incorporated a large variety of technical building solutions, and knowledge about former building practices is needed if refurbishment is to be successful. Industrialised builders in Sweden have recognized the use of a platform as one means of sharing knowledge. A platform is essentially the collection of assets that are shared by a set of products. In a platform for housing refurbishment the assets have knowledge and process content (as opposed to product content) and will probably also contain many relationships. The interview study carried out as part of the research shows that the main purpose of a platform concept is to standardize components and processes. To increase the possibility that a platform concept for refurbishment of buildings will be used for knowledge sharing the focus should be on the individuals who will actually be sharing their knowledge and especially on social motivations. It is important that managers and leaders demonstrate knowledge sharing behaviors as this will lead to the establishment of a culture where knowledge sharing is the norm; in the context of this study this is especially important for the creation of an efficient platform concept for refurbishment. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.