Construction companies (or contractors) are project-based organizations. They organize project teams to execute and manage construction works on construction sites. For each construction company, large amount of valuable knowledge is embedded in individuals working in the construction team. Thus encouraging the individuals to share their knowledge is critical for improving project performances. A construction team constitutes professionals from different disciplines (e.g. engineering, surveying). It is important for team members to share their diverse knowledge to obtain mutual understanding, achieve collaboration, jointly seek effective solutions, and improve work efficiency. Though knowledge sharing has been extensively studied by researchers, there are few studies on how contractors should manage employees’ knowledge sharing practice in the construction domain. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating factors affecting individual knowledge sharing behavior in construction teams in Hong Kong.
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Exchange Theory (SET) are employed as theoretical lens to develop a preliminary research model. To validate the research model, a two-stage research design, i.e. exploratory study and explanatory study, is formulated. The exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews to evaluate factors identified from existing literatures as well as to explore additional important factors. Coding technique is applied to analyze the interview transcripts. Then the factors identified from the exploratory study are used to modify the preliminary research model. In the explanatory study, a questionnaire survey is conducted and a total of 231 responses are collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique is applied to test postulated hypotheses.
Research results confirm that an individual’s knowledge sharing behavior is significantly determined by his/her intention to share knowledge in construction teams. The intention to share knowledge in turn is substantially influenced by the individual’s attitude toward and perceived behavioral control over knowledge sharing. Research findings also reveal that an individual’s perception of losing face negatively affects his/her attitude toward knowledge sharing, while the perceptions of knowledge feedback and knowledge self-efficacy positively affect his/her attitude toward knowledge sharing. Besides, it is discovered that an individual’s perceived behavioral control over knowledge sharing is influenced by his/her perceived space resource, including physical space resource, social space created by social activities, and virtual space facilitated by ICT support.
There are three main contributions in this study. Firstly, several new measurement scales with adequate level of reliability and validity are developed. Secondly, this study makes a breakthrough by adopting TPB to study knowledge sharing behavior in the construction domain. Through empirical examination, this study uncovers the underlying influential factors of individual knowledge sharing behavior in construction teams. Thirdly, this study advances methodology in knowledge sharing research by taking advantage of the robustness of a two-stage research design. Using context-specific factors explored from an exploratory study helps to enhance the validity of the research model. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/174351 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Zhang, Peihua, 张佩华 |
| Contributors | Ng, FF |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47185545 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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