The construction industry is the largest industry in the world and operates in knowledge-based project organisations. The success of projects relies on the management of both tacit and explicit knowledge. This situation calls for a method for disseminating tacit knowledge from individuals to achieve higher performance and success value in construction projects. For the purpose, this study first articulates the problems of knowledge management in the construction industry. Then, by reviewing some knowledge engineering and management literatures, this research sets a theoretical foundation of knowledge management in the construction industry. A questionnaire survey was used to investigate and examine the current situation of knowledge management in UK and China construction industry. The result of frequency analysis and nonparametric test analysis provides the perceptions on the importance of knowledge transfer, the implementation of knowledge transfer, the resources of knowledge, and barriers for tacit knowledge transfer. From the literature review, this study proposes a tacit knowledge transfer process framework (3I) and identifies a series of factors correlated with effectiveness of knowledge transfer. This thesis also identifies four main independent variables - organsiational culture, organizational structure, IT technology and No-IT technology, and investigates the relationship between organisational elements with these factors and the performance of knowledge transfer. The findings are based on three case studies and responses of questionnaire survey and interviews. The results reveal that there are significant relationships between some of the variables and either the creation of knowledge assets or performance of knowledge transfer. Therefore, it is necessary for construction organsiations to consider these elements in developing and implementing a knowledge management strategy/system in a construction organisation. This study proposes a practical methodology to transfer knowledge by using an integrated system (TKTMS). The TKTMS can be an effective tool for all project members to transfer tacit knowledge across firms' boundaries and accelerate the speed of knowledge creation, share and transfer in the construction industry. The integration of the function model (IDEF0) with the information model (IDEF1) is applied to understand the necessary function/information for consideration in the 3I model and implement TKTMS.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:553487 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Liu, Zhitao |
| Contributors | Parvar, Jamshid |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/knowhow-signalling-and-transfer-systems-to-support-integrated-supply-chains(9d7f0a27-7cd9-457a-b3a2-d4bf6c228b65).html |
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