THE RESEARCH ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

OF CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISE

Yang Xiaohong

School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, Jiaoda East Rd, Beijing, China

Keywords: Construction Enterprise, Knowledge Management, Information Construction.

Abstract: The enterprise’s knowledge management has gradually become a key factor in development of the

company. Researching on knowledge management of construction enterprise mainly supporting industry of

national economy is particularly needed. By analyzing the questions and necessity of knowledge

management in construction enterprises, this paper gives the thought of knowledge management from

several aspects, such as enterprise culture, organization structure, incentive mechanism, Information

Construction, etc.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the coming of economic globalization and

knowledge-based economy era, the modern

economy has been transferring into knowledge-

based assets from natural resources, which forces

business leaders to re-examine the corporate

knowledge base and utilization of it (Hariharan, A.,

Cellular, B., 2005). Management guru Peter Drucker

said: "The organization of the 21st century, the most

valuable asset is knowledge worker within the

organization and their productivity."

In China knowledge management has made

rapid development in recent years, the emergence of

knowledge management richly practices. More and

More governments, enterprises, research institutes,

intermediary organizations, NGOs began

to explore the implementation of knowledge

management activities. In the field of knowledge

management, more experts and scholars began to

explore more suitable concepts, methods for China's

knowledge management. What’s more, at the aspect

of IT knowledge management tools, different from

content management, document management

software and other traditional features software, new

features software is emerging. Therefore knowledge

management software steps into the shuffling phase.

At present, in the beginning of the twelfth Five-Year

Plan, knowledge management is included in the the

blueprint of many excellence institutions (Foray, D.,

Gault, F., 2003).

Knowledge management in China has made

Great progress, but there are still problems and

errors. Mainly in the following three aspects:

 Experiences and lessons learned which could

not be conveyed effectively and learn from;

 The knowledge management team could not

master the knowledge management methods

and tools;

 Knowledge management industry is extremely

uneven distribution, unlike IT,

telecommunications, medical and health

fields, construction and other enterprises is

lagging behind the level of knowledge

management.

At present, knowledge management in China's

construction enterprises have not risen to the level of

theory and that also do not implement from the

perspective of organizations and business cultural.

There for knowledge management in China is still

a long way to go.

2 NECESSITY OF KNOWLEDGE

MANAGEMENT IN

CONSTRUTION

2.1 Construction Project

Management’s Features are

Require of Knowledge

Management

Construction project management is an extremely

471

Xiaohong Y..

THE RESEARCH ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISE.

DOI: 10.5220/0003423804710474

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2011), pages 471-474

ISBN: 978-989-8425-56-0

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

complex regulatory process which

is targeting construction projects with the way

of system management and a temporary, special

flexible organization highly efficiently to

plan, organize, direct and control the project and at

last to achieve the whole

process’s dynamic management and project goal’s

comprehensive coordination and optimization.

Therefore, it can be said that the construction project

management is the process of with a possible

effective way to achieve the desired results.

It is the characteristics that are one-

time construction projects determined, one-time

construction projects management and temporary.

After implementation of the project, the

original project organizations tend to dissolve

themselves. The accumulated experiences in project

management process and each of the management

of knowledge as the project management

organizations have the mobility of dissolved. That

lead to valuable experience and tacit knowledge of

individuals is not accumulated. Thus

specialized knowledge and experience of the

project is difficult to re-use, resulting in a huge

waste of knowledge. Therefore, it’s very necessary

to construct project knowledge management and

establish an effective mechanism for knowledge

accumulation and sharing, to make sure the specific

project management knowledge can be preserved

and improved with the sharing process. Ultimately it

can improve the overall level of the project

management individuals and make the organization

avoid repeating the same mistakes, thereby

increasing the level of construction

project management and investment benefits.

2.2 From External to Internal Factors

Explain why Construction

Enterprises Need Knowledge

Management

First, in a highly competitive market environment,

the requirements of construction enterprises enhance

their core competitiveness with the increasing the

status of knowledge capital in the enterprise which

need a comprehensive variety of resources to

improve their innovation capability meet the

increasingly changing market condition. However,

innovation capability in large part of depending

on the acquisition, transfer, storage, knowledge

share and some other knowledge management

activities. So knowledge management is the key to

construct enterprises survival.

Second, it is the requirement of industrial

division of labour system on knowledge. For

example, survey and design units is becoming more

knowledge-based; Real estate development

companies, the house owners tending to higher and

higher product quality requiring; All kinds of

information fast drive the construction enterprises to

grasp the trend of the market. So the best way to

collect and store the various types of knowledge is

sounding knowledge management mechanism.

3 THE PROBLEMS EXIST

IN KNOWLEDGE

MANAGEMENT

OF CONSTRUCTION

ENTERPRISES IN CHINA

First, knowledge management of construction

enterprise is without a clear purpose, and no

knowledge management professionals.

Most construction enterprises believe that

knowledge management itself is for the purpose.

Many construction enterprises can’t be true to link

knowledge management to practical issues of the

enterprises. The purpose of knowledge management

is not the birth of knowledge management, but in

dealing with construction issues most pressing

business, which is where knowledge management

can play a place. In addition, most knowledge

management of construction enterprises are not in

charged by full-time person, who in an emergency or

when companies need will put aside the work of

knowledge management to deal with more important

matters they think, it considers that the starting point

in the wrong. Large construction companies need

more persons responsible for the knowledge

management. The current "no purpose, no

leadership" management state is not conducive to

knowledge management to play a real role in the

enterprises.

Second, at present the majority of construction

enterprises in China adopt the management

organization forms are not easy to implement

knowledge management.

At present, construction enterprises in China

adopt the management organization form usually as

following:

 Group Company-Branch or Subsidiary-Project

Management Department;

 Group Company-Project Management

Department.

ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

472

It is such as the three-tier or two-tier system of

management in the form. Group consists of several

functional departments and branches, which have

separate functions under the department and project

department, so in various management levels there is

such phenomenon with overlap in the crossover, and

that makes prone to long command, resulting in the

disorder of internal management (Wang Congying，

Liu Qing，Wang Jianping, 2010).

Finally, information management platform of the

Knowledge management has not been perfect.

Construction industry has always been traditional

extensive industry with relatively low level of

information, and even some small and medium

enterprises do not have their own independent

knowledge management information platform. In

many cases they transfer knowledge by the master

train an apprentice or Informal document. For some

large-scale construction enterprises that already have

independent knowledge management platform for,

their systems are omissions abound. Such as

Professional software developers out of touch with

the relevant technical staff and poor communication

are leading to its ease of use, mobility, scalability

and flexibility disappointments. Coupled with the

construction industry staff general relatively weak

sense of information and their knowledge structure

with a bias make that more difficult for knowledge

information access and network sharing.

4 THE METHODS OF

IMPLEMENTING

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

IN CONSTRUCTION

ENTERPRISE

4.1 Create a Corporate Culture which

Conducive to Knowledge

Management

The so-called corporate culture, also known as

organizational culture or management culture, it is

the group consciousness and behavioural criteria

which evolving in the enterprise's long-term

development process with the characteristics of the

enterprise, and the corresponding regulations and

organizations combined. Corporate culture has

oriented, constraint, cohesion, motivation and

radiation and other functions for the behaviour and

values of the enterprise. By creating a knowledge-

friendly corporate culture, integrating different

cultural backgrounds, encouraging staffs to

participate in enterprise's knowledge-building,

stimulating the workers' thirst for knowledge,

encouraging to explore new knowledge and willing

to share knowledge, experience, and promoting the

construction of knowledge management, made the

knowledge become the most important asset.

4.2 Set up Full-time Knowledge

Management Department

At the beginning of the knowledge management,

with human and material resources in place as while

workload is small, the enterprise can on the basis of

the original functions to add the knowledge

management work. With the management system

consummated and workload increase, the enterprise

can re-creation of specialized functions for

knowledge management. The main functions include

the collection and mining knowledge information

with edited and organized to promote the formation

of knowledge networks. Its also include to establish

a basis platform of knowledge management to

promote the implementation of the strategic

objectives of knowledge management.

4.3 Establish an Incentive Mechanism

for Knowledge Management

One of the key works for knowledge management is

to establish an incentive mechanism. In order to

have good results, construction enterprise

knowledge management as a new enterprise

management mode must be co-ordinated with the

appropriate incentives. In the early stages of

knowledge management, knowledge sharing has not

yet become a natural behaviour and habits,

companies need to introduce appropriate material

incentives, spiritual motivation and emotional

incentives to help the companies create knowledge-

sharing environment, so that employees can enjoy a

good working atmosphere that benefit for learning

technology and dissemination of knowledge. A good

work atmosphere also can enhance their overall

technical strength, creative capacity and ability for

application of knowledge, especially the creative

capacity and ability to apply of the enterprise.

4.4 Construct an Organizations

with Conducive to Knowledge

Management

It is necessary requirement the organizational

structure match the requirements of the knowledge

THE RESEARCH ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISE

473

activities for achieving effective management of

corporate knowledge resources, so the knowledge

management must start to organizational innovation.

This innovation is an organizational restructuring

triggered by the information technology revolution,

it is usually following business process

reengineering. The organizational innovation caused

by Knowledge Economy is represented by

organization's network and the development of

network organization. Networking organization

emphasizes the flow of information at all levels and

each specialized domain, the organizational structure

must be open, flat, fewer reporting levels, fully

empowered, democratic management.

In addition, learning organization should be

gradually set up in the process of implementing

knowledge management for the construction

projects. The construction of technique system is

often realized by the act of purchasing necessary

devices and software, and the setup of various

systems is achieved by regulations and laws in

written form which are designed by relevant

managers in systems. Learning organization is

characterized by the following aspects:

 In learning organization, learning becomes an

indispensible part for the project managers.

 In learning organization, every project manager

can enhance his ability to achieve the expected

results and common goals with his full effort.

Every manager in such organization learns

together with each other.

 Learning organization is characterized by its

own culture and has its own programs to deal

with the complicity and uncertainty in light of

project management.

4.5 Establish Strengthening

Information Construction,

Founding Technique Platform

for Knowledge Management

Managers of enterprises can start from the following

aspects:

 Enterprise should improve the ATM and speedy

Ethernet Switch in intranet, and set up the

WAN with sub-branches and other

enterprises.

 Enterprise should update the office automata

ion system including public letters flow,

email, documentation management, electronic

notification, discussion group, and remote

office.

 Enterprise should make full use of Lotus Notes

to set up enterprise knowledge database. The

knowledge can be categorized as obvious

(encoded) knowledge and hidden (uncoded)

knowledge. Knowledge management first

involves the protection on the obvious

knowledge so as to fully share it with

members in the enterprise and make full use

of it. This can convert the knowledge

advantages to profitable advantages.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This paper talks about the development background

for knowledge management and architecture

construction enterprises, analyzes the necessity of

implementing knowledge management for

architecture construction enterprises and the

problems arisen in the process of implementing

knowledge management, and puts forwards the

strategy and solutions for implementing knowledge

management. In knowledge and economy driving

times, knowledge management has witnessed

achievements in certain fields and enterprises and it

has become an indispensible part in the architecture

construction enterprises characterize by masses of

construction projects, long term of circle time, and

high cost. As a kind of advanced management

methods, knowledge management employing a

variety of methods and strategies to be applied to

enterprise management is conducive for the

knowledge in organization to function and connect

the materials flow, working flow, business flow,

capital flow, resource flow, which will improve the

management efficiency and level for enterprises.

Therefore, architecture construction enterprises

should employ all kinds of suitable methods and

strategies to set up effective management system.

REFERENCES

Hariharan, A., Cellular, B.,



2005. The journal,

Knowledge Management Review.

Foray, D., Gault, F., 2003. The book, OECD Publications,

Paris.

Wang Cong-ying，Liu Qing，Wang Jian-ping, 2010. The

journal, Journal of Engineering Management.

ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

474