Facilitating Organizational Learning within the Construction Industry

This chapter describes an action research project, Building a High Value Construction Environment (B-Hive), involving: two major construction clients, a privatised utility company (Thames Water), and a major leisure services provider (Whitbread Hotels); a large construction company (Taylor Woodrow); two leading construction consultancy firms; and Leeds Metropolitan University and London School of Economics. The research method, action research, was particularly appropriate for this project because it promoted learning and understanding through action and reflection, culminating in the production of a workshop-based approach that facilitates externalisation of knowledge and organisational learning. The approach facilitated the sharing of knowledge amongst construction project partners that would traditionally be very protective, and even adversarial, towards each other. 130 Orange, Onions, Burke, and Colledge Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Introduction The chapter seeks to address the problem of fragmentation within the construction industry through the processes of knowledge management and organisational learning. Background to the construction industry is provided with references to respected industry commentators such as Latham (1994) and Egan (1998). This is followed by a review of appropriate contemporary research literature on knowledge management and organisational learning leading to the introduction of the Cross Organisational Learning Approach (COLA). The COLA process was developed as the output of a funded research project designed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge by all partners of construction projects. The chapter describes COLA and identifies outputs from the process. A diagrammatic representation of the learning model is given in the Appendix. The chapter ends by identifying future issues and directions for research.