The role of philosophical context in the development of theory: Towards methodological pluralism

The research strategy dictates the major direction of the research and constitutes one of the important decisions made by the researcher. However, researchers? understanding on theory at the outset of the research guides the design of the research. The paper presents an overview of the involvement of theory within different research philosophies, approaches and methods. The relationship between data and theory is an issue that has been long debated. Moving from data to theory is commonly discussed in social constructionism with inductive approach and ideographic methods. However, within positivism philosophy with deductive approach and nomothetic methods, moving from theory to data is common. However, the growing concept of philosophical pluralism and methodological pluralism challenges the polarised views on philosophies and approaches, which suggests that methodologies are best used in complementary way

Knowledge management and organisational performance: a literature review

Although knowledge management is considered as a very recent phenomenon, research in to knowledge and the management of the knowledge within the business context has grown dramatically over the last few years, in a number of different directions. As a result, a great deal about, what knowledge is and the ways in which knowledge is managed, have been addressed by many authors. However, despite the growing body of theory, there are relatively few knowledge management texts that make an explicit connection between knowledge and performance. Knowledge is not always utilised and that utilised knowledge does not always result in improved performance. Thereby measurement of performance is of utmost importance for an organisation to ensure the successful implementation of knowledge management exercise. This paper is aimed at reviewing literature on both knowledge management and organisational performance. Based on the review it was underlined knowledge management as a strategy which leads to performances. The paper highlighted the extreme importance of looking into the performance measures which can be deployed in knowledge organisations and recommends further research to be carried out on this regard

Importance of tacit knowledge towards company performance and its relevance to construction

Valuable human and knowledge resources will be wasted unless organisations make better use of these prime resources. Tacit knowledge in particular is still considered to be relatively unexplored and proper understanding and management of this resource is of immense importance for better organisational performance. The research addresses the importance of people factor and tacit knowledge in construction and examines the contribution towards the company performance and achievement of competitive advantage through a thorough literature review. Principle insights of dominant views on organisational resources are discussed to highlight the strategic nature of tacit knowledge. Labour and knowledge intensive nature of the construction industry is revealed and finally the importance and the significant role of people factor and tacit knowledge in construction are highlighted. This provides the basis for more empirical research on finding importance of tacit knowledge towards organisational performance in the construction industry

Improving quality and consistency of dissertation assessment

During the last decade, there has been increasing calls for Higher Education to improve standards, increase the quality of assessment, and for greater accountability of lecturers. It is recognised that consistency in assessment is even more important where assessment is through one large piece of work, such as a dissertation, and where the assessment outcome will have a significant impact on the final grade of students. In this context, this paper outlines the initial literature findings and results of an exercise associated with mechanism used in assessing undergraduate dissertations. This project aims to identify good practices for dissertation assessment, in an attempt to improve the quality and consistency of assessment. Several initiatives were undertaken to improve the quality and consistency of existing dissertation programme drawing from the outcomes of the study

Managing the construction worker in a knowledge environment

Valuable human and knowledge resources will be wasted unless organisations make better use of these prime resources. Construction knowledge workers and their tacit knowledge in particular is still considered to be relatively unexplored and proper understanding and management of this resource is of immense importance for better organisational performance. The paper stresses the importance of knowledge worker and tacit knowledge in construction and examines the contribution towards the company performance. Two dimensions in construction knowledge worker management are highlighted. This provides a valid basis to embrace the concept of knowledge worker and a knowledge culture at all levels within construction organisations

Managing construction workers and their tacit knowledge in a knowledge environment: A conceptual framework

Within the construction industry, it is increasingly being acknowledged that knowledge management can bring about the much needed innovation and improved performance the industry requires. Nevertheless, sufficient attention is still to be received for the concept of the knowledge worker and their tacit knowledge within construction industry. Yet, proper understanding and management of this resource is of immense importance for the achievement of better organisational performance. Hence, this paper aims to devise a theoretical framework for managing construction knowledge worker and their tacit knowledge based on review and synthesis of literature. Paper stresses the importance of construction knowledge worker and tacit knowledge through review of literature and highlights prevailing gap due to lack of attention and recognition given to the tacit knowledge in the construction industry. Based on identified gap research aim, objectives and hypotheses are devised. As the specific research methodology, the social constructionism stance in terms of epistemological undertakings and idealistic approach under the ontological assumptions with value laden purposes are suggested. Further, it recommends the deployment of multiple exploratory case studies approach with triangulation techniques

Are we catering to the construction industry KM requirements?: A literature synthesis

The concept of Knowledge Management is now familiar to the construction industry and various attempts are being made for the effective management of knowledge in the industry. This paper addresses the importance of people factor and tacit knowledge in construction and examines the current focus of knowledge management initiatives to find out the alignment with the industry requirements. Labour and knowledge intensive nature of industry is revealed with challenging aspects of construction performance. Dominant hard model of human resource management is uncovered and finally the mismatch between the current focus and industry KM requirements is unearthe