Managing
Different Knowledge Types
Managing general and specialised knowledge is one of the
problems faced by construction consulting companies. Many companies, this one
included, tend to follow a relatively ‘generalist' approach to work assignments
among technical professionals, whereby staff members will end up working on a
huge range of projects and tasks within their particular discipline. While this
is considered an appropriate approach in a business where no two jobs are ever
the same, and where the range of jobs undertaken is too wide to justify
employment of teams of specifically qualified individuals, there is still room
to introduce elements of specialisation. Requiring many staff across the
organisation to possess or acquire certain knowledge, which they may need at
some stage, but not continually, represents an over-investment in that
knowledge. It is more efficient to promote one (or more) individuals to
specialise in selected areas, and to communicate that specialisation to the
other members of the organisation (through mechanisms discussed above).
Certainly the ability to tap into a wider pool of expertise should be one of the
significant benefits of belonging to a larger organisation. Identification of
potential areas for development of specialisation is best done at lower levels
of the organisation and coordinated between offices across the company. These
need not be major areas of technical expertise, but even more general aspects of
the regular business of a discipline. For example, mechanical engineers could be
nominated to specialise in areas such as pumps, control valves, or pipe support
systems. This aspect of knowledge management obviously ties in with issues of
employee training and development. Should such a specialist leave the company,
there is certainly a resulting loss of knowledge, however the extent of this
loss will be minimised if the individual has been actively sharing their
knowledge with their peers in the normal course of carrying out their work, and
has codified aspects of their knowledge through drawings and documentation which
they have produced or contributed to while in that role. Having such identified
specialists in the company allows them to be used as a resource for the entire
firm in areas such as reviewing specific relevant sections of project
documentation. It ensures a consistent and correct output from each specific
knowledge area, and also provides a readily identifiable target for
project-related feedback in their area of expertise. The specialist should be
responsible for updating standard documents to reflect the evolving knowledge of
the organisation.
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