Strategies for Managing Project Generated Knowledge: A New Zealand Case Study

Abstract

If consulting construction companies made more effective use of project-generated knowledge, the financial health of the company would increase. This chapter discusses how wasted, lost, and ineffective use of knowledge leads to inefficiencies and reworking of past problems. The chapter focuses on the development of project-generated knowledge management systems and the benefits that construction companies can reap from such developments. Through a detailed case study, the chapter shows where the main problem areas occur in managing knowledge and proposes possible solutions to these problems. The chapter concludes that it is the people that use and produce the knowledge that are in the best position to help develop such a project-generated knowledge management system, with senior managers and company knowledge managers providing structure, facilitation, and support. With such collaboration and involvement of all staff in a company, failures of such systems will be reduced and the company as a whole will benefit.