Strategies for Managing Project Generated Knowledge-A New Zealand Case
Study
Steve
de Kretser
Sinclair Knight Merz Ltd, New Zealand
Suzanne Wilkinson
The University of Auckland, New
Zealand
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.