Adoption Challenges of Knowledge Management Models in the Construction Industry

Construction projects are increasingly becoming competitive, more complex and difficult to manage. Efficient knowledge management in construction organizations is recognized as an important factor in this environment. The main driver behind the intense interest in knowledge management is that knowledge is seen as an asset and a significant organizational resource. If knowledge is managed and used effectively, it can provide a tremendous competitive advantage to organizations. Thus, many tools and techniques have been discussed, and also many models have been developed and proposed over the years in the knowledge management domain. Most of these models focused on acquiring, storing, disseminating, and making efficient use of knowledge. Nevertheless, knowledge management is still in its infancy due to the many barriers that prevent its easy adoption by construction organizations. The objective of the research presented in this paper is to examine and reveal the main challenges that need to be surmounted in the adoption and implementation of knowledge management in construction organizations. To that end, firstly the concept of knowledge management in construction is discussed. Afterwards, a review of the literature is conducted to identify the existing models and explore their implementation in the construction industry. Existing models used for managing knowledge in the construction industry are extracted from the literature, and examined. The challenges involved in adopting and implementing knowledge management in construction organizations are analyzed and discussed. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made relative to overcoming these challenges. The research presented in this-paper provides directions to construction organizations that are contemplating adopting knowledge management.