Challenges

V1. Lack of Awareness of the Importance of Tacit Knowledge Integration

It is necessary to prioritise and improve the awareness of the project’s members on the benefits of tacit knowledge and how its integration will lead to improve the project’s process and performance. Generally, members of construction organisations are aware of the importance of tacit knowledge and its key role in solving problems that occur in the construction project lifecycle. However, the awareness of the importance of TKI, in terms of transferring the captured tacit knowledge, in a traditional construction project is low. This is due to the separation of the design and construction team. In this type of procurement system there is a lack of awareness on how using the captured tacit knowledge could impact project and save cost and time, and lack of related facilities for utilising TKI in terms of capturing, sharing, and transferring knowledge. However, the separation of the design and construction team raises the issue of having the liability of captured tacit knowledge.

V2. Lack of Participation in Knowledge Integration

The participation in KI depends on being well incentivised and informed about the importance of KI. This lack of participation leads to not capturing and documenting the project’s members’ knowledge properly in the first place and transferring it to the next phase or project. Participants believed that the project members mostly do not participate in sharing activities between the project phases because they are not well incentivised and informed about the liability of the shared knowledge. Their role and participation in the process of sharing knowledge between project phases should be elaborated in their contract due to the separation of the design and construction phase within a traditional construction project.

V3. Lack of Time

The participants believed that allocating time is one factor that enables project members to participate in the KI process in construction projects. Project members are always under time- pressure to reach the deadlines and complete their tasks. Additionally, they will be recruited in another project once the current is completed. Therefore, project members suffer from allocating time to participate in capturing, sharing, and transferring knowledge.

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V4. Lack of Information and Knowledge Integration

The participants highlighted that there were no guidelines in their organisation for integrating knowledge in terms of capturing, sharing, and transferring. They believed that information and knowledge were not documented properly from the previous phase, and if they were captured, documented, and existed, it was difficult for them to find the relevant knowledge. This means that the traditional construction project suffers from lack of information and KI between its phases. In other words, there is a lack of shared knowledge between the design and construction phase which is due to the fragmentation nature of the TPS. This lack of KI will result in spending more time, incurring greater costs and increasing the possibility of “Reinventing the Wheel”.

V5. KM System (policies and strategies)

The poor management of knowledge between project phases leads to considerable amount of knowledge loss. This is more common in construction projects undertaken through the TPS due to the fragmentation nature of this system where the design team is separated from construction team. This fragmentation means different teams and organisations which come together during a project run and maintain their own KM systems and processes and then they disperse after project taking with them their acquired knowledge from the completed project. Therefore, their knowledge would not be available and accessible when it is needed in other projects or at other phases. Respondents highlighted that their communications with other teams were only based on their contract and they were not incentivised and informed properly to share their experiences between project phases. Additionally, some participants highlighted that their organisation identified the lessons learned from previous project and recruited experts who left the organisation before, for their current project. However, other participants stated that their organisation has not made any effort to keep experts. All agreed that there were no guidelines for integrating knowledge. Thus, the KM system was poor which means using less and inappropriate techniques, policies and strategies for capturing, sharing and transferring project knowledge.

V6. Lack of Incentives

The motivation plays a key role in communication with project members. Project leaders need to be incentivised to participate in the KI process in terms of capturing, sharing, and transferring knowledge. Participants highlighted that they were not open and incentivised to

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share their experiences and ideas between project phases and, furthermore, their contract clarified the way in which to communicate with other project members in different phases. Additionally, there is no ethos of collaboration and participation in sharing knowledge in the TPS due to the separation nature of this system. Therefore, lack of incentives should be tackled through conducting a comprehensive contract and implementing appropriate KM strategies.

V7. Lack of Proper use of Knowledge Integration Techniques

The participants highlighted that they have difficulty in finding relevant knowledge, capturing, and documenting their experience properly, allocating time to participate in shared activities between project phases, and not being well aware of the importance of knowledge transfer. Therefore, the KI techniques in terms of capturing, sharing, and transferring knowledge were not properly applied and used. However, this issue could be tackled by adopting an appropriate KM system that improves the awareness of project members on the importance of TKI and incentivise them to participate in the KI process.

V8. Lack of Trust

Having an open environment to communicate and share ideas depends on having a mutual trust between project members at different phases. Participants stated that they had open environment and shared their ideas within their teams but had difficulty in communicating and sharing their experiences with members of other teams because they had to communicate and share information and experiences between different project phases according to their contract. Additionally, they mentioned that project members also were reluctant to participate in knowledge sharing process between project phases because they did not know whether they were liable to share their experience and information because their knowledge is a proprietary asset of their organisation. However, improving trust depends on the culture of organisations and the KM policies that are adopted by the project manager and stakeholders in order to encourage and motivate project members to participate in the KI process. In the TPS, lack of trust is significant as the nature of this system is based on the separation of the design and construction team.

V9. Culture of Organisations

As mentioned in Sections 4.4.3 and 4.6, the organisational culture is the most important factor that affects the process of capturing, sharing, and transferring knowledge. It depends on the

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attitudes of the knowledge manager to incentivise project members and to participate in the KI process by using various appropriate techniques and technologies. This means adopting an appropriate KM system depends on having a supporting organisational culture. Participants highlighted that the organisational culture should prioritise and increase the awareness level of project members on the importance of KI in terms of capturing, sharing, and transferring knowledge. In other words, an organisation must encourage trust and provide incentives for its project members in order to implement appropriate KM strategies (including the consideration of approaches that increase the awareness of project members on the importance of TKI, and proper techniques for integrating tacit knowledge).

V10. Contractual Boundaries

The nature of the TPS is based on the fragmentation rather than integration. This means the design team is separated from the construction team in a traditional construction project, and their communication is highly dependent on the provisions of their contract. Participants stated that it is the terms of the contract that dictates what type of knowledge and how to communicate and share information and experiences. In other words, it is the provisions of contract that affects the flow of information and knowledge between the design and construction phase of projects. This means that the KM policies of organisations in terms of sharing information and knowledge between project phases in the TPS depends on the provisions of their contract with the client. This issue has a significant role in the process of KI in terms of sharing knowledge between different project phases.