Knowledge management within a leading Irish construction organisation

Considered to-be one of the most dynamic and complex industrial environments construction is a project-based industry which is recognised as being poor at learning on a consistent basis, improving performance and is notoriously slow in adapting to progressive change. Traditionally labour-intensive organisations employing a full workforce of tradesmen and labourers, large main contractors have generally moved away from being a 'building company' towards directly employing a core professional and management team to lead teams of outsourced contractors. Two separate organisations; Engineers Ireland (EI), the country's leading professional body and the Construction Information Technology Alliance (CITA) a research partnership between industry and academia have identified KM as important to the future competitiveness of the Irish construction industry. An in-depth case study of a leading Irish construction organisation has been conducted in order to identify and evaluate current and potential approaches to managing knowledge at individual, project and organisational levels. This consisted of a combination of interviews and surveys with a broad spectrum of management and professional staff, including a director, project managers, quantity surveyors, foremen and engineers. It was found that the company are committed to the provision of life-long learning opportunities for all staff through comprehensive continuing professional development (CPD) activities, which are accredited by EI. To fulfil the KM requirement for accreditation, a lessons learned database was implemented but has not been successful as initially anticipated. The lack of a working definition of knowledge within the organisation and awareness of the importance and potential advantages of KM reflects a casual approach, and indicates the need for further exploration of knowledge and KM-related issues. The potential for aligning individual learning with wider organisational KIN objectives also merits further investigation.