Business case for knowledge management in construction (C642)

All organisations are awash with information and knowledge. The problem is that it is invisible and most people in organisations don't know what their colleagues know. The organisations don't know what their employees know and typically have even less grip on the knowledge available outside - such as that owned by competitors, suppliers, universities and the government. The role of knowledge management, or KM, is to identify what information and knowledge is important to the organisation, finding out where it is held, and mobilising it so that staff can apply it in their work.

Anyone in construction who understands the importance of improving their organisation's management of knowledge needs this guide. It provides a stage-by-stage description of how to develop a structured argument for persuading senior decision-makers that it is worth putting effort into developing KM.

Included with the guide is a CD-ROM containing a PowerPoint presentation that will help the user make a convincing business for knowledge management in his or her organisation.

Key words: project management, construction management, organisational innovation, benchmarking and KPIs, knowledge management.

ISBN: 978-0-86017-642-8

Author: J Palmer, S Platt

Number of pages: 72 (paperback)

Publisher: CIRIA

Date of Publication: March 2005