Quantitative evaluation on organizational knowledge implementation in the construction industry

Abstract

One way of improving organizations is by implementing knowledge which can be obtained from research products. Although there are many valuable research products available which have tremendous potential to improve the organization from research, many of them have not been implemented to a significant extent on real world projects. This study is initiated by the willingness to validate the importance of knowledge implementation in the context of knowledge management. Developing a quantitative evaluation index of knowledge implementation is the main objective of this study. In developing the index, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) sponsored research products and its member companies were used as main data sources. The index, named as CII Knowledge Implementation Index (CKII), was used to evaluate the organizational knowledge implementation level among U.S. based firms in the construction industry. Analysis results show that there is a wide range of implementation levels among survey respondents. Relationships between research participation and knowledge implementation are also examined in this study but the analyses results failed to show statistical significances between the two factors. This study is one of the first attempts to quantify the knowledge implementation at the organizational level in the construction industry.