Social practices and the management of knowledge in project environments
Introduction
The potential importance of managing knowledge for competitive advantage has received a phenomenal amount of attention in recent years [1]. However, it is only comparatively recently that attention has specifically been directed towards the opportunities and limitations of managing knowledge in project environments [2], [3], [4], [5]. This is somewhat surprising, as project organisation is not only an increasingly important mode of organising [6], but also has long been seen as the locale for complex processes of new product development and innovation [7].
Focusing attention on understanding knowledge management in project-based settings alerts one to the particular complexities associated with this form of organisation. Knowledge management in a context where learning is fundamentally project-based faces many challenges. As projects differ substantially from one another and significant discontinuities in flows of personnel, materials and information are created, it becomes difficult to develop steady state routines that maximise the flow of knowledge and the capture of learning from one project to the next [8]. In particular types of project setting—such as the construction industry, which is the focus of this paper—such discontinuities are added to by the fragmentation of the construction project team into different professional disciplines [9]. Each discipline has its own knowledge base and language, which can make the effective codification and transfer of knowledge even more problematic.
Although early debates on knowledge management tended to revolve around the use of information and communication technologies [10], [11], the limitations of an IT-based view of knowledge capture and codification have long been emphasised [12]. Instead attention has increasingly shifted towards examining the role of the social community in promoting or inhibiting knowledge retention and transfer [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. Although a good deal of knowledge within organisations may of course be amenable to the application of IT-based tools and techniques, approaches to knowledge management have increasingly explored the ways in which social structures and communities influence the capture and diffusion of knowledge and learning [13], [14]. In this type of approach, much more emphasis is placed upon exploring the tacit and situated nature of knowledge and how it is embedded within particular social groups and situations [20].
The problem here, however, is that knowledge becomes very much more difficult to exploit, even when it can be clearly articulated, because it requires a shared system of meaning for understanding, accepting and deploying it. Conversely, knowledge may stick within firms and leak across firms, in so far as firms encompass multiple communities of practice [14]. Consequently, it becomes important to understand the ways in which social processes influence the nature of knowledge and learning, and the impact they have upon attempts to codify and commodify knowledge—including through the application of information and communication technologies. Having said that, there is very little detailed analysis available of the social mechanisms that support knowledge sharing, especially across projects and the communities that they link together [8]. In order to help understand further the impact of social processes on knowledge management in project environments, this paper therefore draws upon research recently conducted in the UK that was designed to explore knowledge management for project-based learning.1
The aim of the research was to identify likely enablers and barriers to effective capture and transfer of knowledge, drawing upon cases of single projects across characteristically different project environments. Although the study, as a whole, explored project-based learning across a range of sectors that included pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, health and social services [21], [22], [23], this paper draws exclusively from the one sector included in which project work was the normal mode of organisation—namely the construction industry. The particular case selected was the introduction by a contracting firm of new management processes, which were explicitly designed to encourage cross-project learning and knowledge sharing. Importantly, the company was attempting to develop explicit social mechanisms to encourage knowledge sharing and learning across projects, where traditionally this had been done in an ad hoc manner and where, more recently, the role of IT has been stressed. The case study therefore provides an opportunity to highlight and examine the significance of social factors in enhancing knowledge management capabilities in construction (as well as other) project environments.
Section snippets
Managing knowledge in project environments
Project-based organisations ought to benefit from the inherently innovative nature of project tasks. Since projects characteristically involve the development of new products and new processes, there are obvious opportunities for novel ideas to emerge and for cross-functional learning to occur, thereby enhancing the organisation's innovative capacity and potential [24], [25]. Indeed, projects themselves are increasingly seen as vehicles for change in traditionally structured functional settings
Research aims and methodology
In order to address this question, this paper draws upon research conducted as part of a study, which was designed to explore knowledge management for project-based learning across a range of industrial sectors in the UK. The research project as a whole took five case studies of projects being undertaken in the following sectors: construction, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, health and social services. While the material presented and discussed here is limited to the construction case, the
The regional engineering manager (REM) project
The project involved the introduction of a new role—the Regional Engineering Manager (REM)—into a regionally divisionalised construction company. The aim of introducing the new role was to contribute towards profitability by increasing the value engineering of projects, as well as to improve the co-ordination of engineering services provision and engineers' training and development across the regions. The REM was therefore seen as a conduit for the spread of engineering-based knowledge and
Discussion
The first and most obvious point to make about the case concerns the nature of the project itself and the fact that it concerned a management reorganisation, rather than the development of a new product or service. Not surprisingly, much existing research on project-based learning tends to focus on product innovation [41]. However, the construction case was primarily concerned with process innovation. Indeed, this was true of all the other projects looked at in the research—even where the
Conclusion
This paper has set out to explore knowledge management processes associated with project-based learning, by drawing upon a case study of organisational change in a construction company. The main finding to emerge from this case is that processes of knowledge capture, transfer and learning in project settings rely very heavily upon social patterns, practices and processes in ways which emphasise the value and importance of adopting a community-based approach. These findings have obvious
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