Assessment Of The Barriers To Knowledge Management Practices Among Construction Organisations in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Construction projects are information-laden and construction organisations require a great deal of work to ensure that information is properly recorded and archived for use in future projects. In spite of the efforts put into managing this knowledge information, construction projects suffer from time and cost overruns, rework, poor quality work, and battered reputation of project’s stakeholders, all these resulted from distorted and loss of information; leading to reinventing the wheel in terms of poor performance and failures. Thus, this paper assessed the barriers to knowledge management (KM) practices in Nigerian construction organisations. This study was carried out using a survey design approach and well-structured questionnaire administered randomly to construction organisations. Data obtained was analysed using; Percentages, Relative Important Index (RII), Kruskall-Walis H test and Mann-Whitney U test. The major barriers to knowledge management in the construction organisations identified by this study are: - lack of formal review and learning processes, poor communication network, lack of adequate technology, low level of training/intellectual capital, lack of IT support facilities, problem of converting knowledge, time constraint, and lack of coordination. A divergent view was observed among large, small and medium organisations, but a convergence of opinions observed between small and medium organisations. However, this study concluded that barriers to practicing of knowledge management among categories of construction organisations in Nigeria, was obvious and attributable to ineffective and inefficient practicing of KM system in the construction sector. It was recommended that adequate technology and communication network to support knowledge capturing, recording, and archiving is needed