Tacit knowledge sharing in construction: a system dynamics approach

Most of the knowledge in the construction industry is tacit rather than explicit, and its sharing is imperative for enhanced project performance. Tacit Knowledge Sharing (TKS) is heavily influenced by an array of human factors, such as behaviour, attitude, skills, experience, personal contact, and interaction. These factors interact in multiple ways resulting in positive as well as negative loops for TKS, leading towards complexity. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of TKS in developing countries and thereafter, develop a System Dynamics (SD) model for addressing the aforementioned complexity. The study delineates the interrelations between nineteen shortlisted contributing factors of TKS using systems thinking and causal loop diagram (CLD). In total, CLD encompassed four reinforcing and two balancing loops. Furthermore, CLD was used to develop a SD model that contained four stocks. An additional stock named TKS was incorporated to visualize the combined effect of all stocks. The model was simulated over five years and results indicated an increase in TKS efficiency under the defined system and hence improvement in construction project performance. The resultant CLD and SD models reflect the system’s thinking and behaviour over time for TKS in construction. The study adopts a novel methodology in form of SD for holistically addressing the construction culture to be favourable for TKS and thereby improving construction project performance. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.