Critical success factors associated with effective knowledge sharing in the provision of floating support services in sheltered housing for the elderly

As the population ages, an increasing number of vulnerable older people are choosing to live in some sort of home, including sheltered housing, extra care sheltered housing and residential care homes. The needs of older people are constantly changing and there is need for long term support. Older people living in sheltered housing with complex needs require access to services with a network of different types of support. Floating support, an initiative by the UK Department of Communities and Local Government through Supporting People Programme, aims to aid people with complex needs and prevent homelessness. Effective sharing of knowledge between supporting housing providers and adult social services can be established through knowledge sharing initiatives. This paper aims to identify the factors that are critical for effective knowledge sharing in providing floating support services for the elderly in sheltered housing. The main contribution of this paper is an extensive review of literature on floating support and critical success factors to knowledge sharing. This paper concludes that trust, motivation, effective communication, shared mindsets, leadership and training are critical for effective knowledge sharing in providing floating support in sheltered housing for the elderly

Maximising the impact of knowledge for innovation in gaining competitive advantage

Due to the global nature of today’s trading environment, it is vital that firms work to develop dynamic capabilities enabling them to stay ahead of competitors. Innovation is widely accepted as being a source of sustainable competitive advantage. However, many organisational approaches to innovation are haphazard at best. Tacit knowledge, that which resides in human beings and is embedded in organisational routines, has also been identified as a source of advantage. The implicit nature of such knowledge often makes it difficult to harness and exploit for organisational benefits. Evidence would suggest that there is a symbiotic relationship between knowledge management and the capacity of the organisation to innovate. The paper aims to explore the relationship between the two in more depth to facilitate the use of knowledge and innovation as a means of gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Keywords: competitive advantage, innovation, knowledge management, tacit knowledge

Selection criteria frameword for choosing industrialized building systems for housing projects

An Industrialized Building System (IBS) has been accepted as an innovation strategy to assist in overcoming key problems in the Malaysian housing sector. The manufacturers and producers of IBS have claimed that their systems have a multitude of advantages and benefits. The selection criteria used to choose the appropriate type of IBS for housing projects have been identified as one the critical issues in the decision-making process at the conceptual stage of using IBS. The criteria such as cost, time and quality play a major role in the selection tasks. Through a literature review, this paper highlights the criteria that have been considered in the adoption of IBS in the UK and in the Malaysian construction industry. It also reviews existing choosing types of IBS. It is concluded that a wide perspective and an extensive variety of factors may contribute to the impact of the effectiveness of the decision-making process associated with the selection of type of IBS. These include the structure and design, site orientation, safety, client perspectives, environmental issues and sustainability, organizational issues and risk. This paper recommends that a structured and holistically approach in decision-making for selecting the type of IBS is important and needed in housing projects and in the Malaysian construction industry

Issues associated with knowledge sharing initiatives in government agencies in Malaysia

Government agencies are mainly known as knowledge intensive organizations. In order to exploit effective knowledge sharing, they have to develop practical knowledge sharing implementation approaches. Nevertheless, strong demand and expectation from citizens for efficient service delivery, coupled with global challenges in the knowledge based economy have fuelled the need for government agencies to consider effective implementation of knowledge sharing as a strategy to improve service delivery. Effective knowledge sharing initiatives have the potential to benefit government agencies in view of their role. This paper aims to identify the core issues in knowledge sharing initiatives that government agencies face in delivering effective policies, particularly in their role and influence in the construction industry. Based on a critical review of literature on knowledge sharing in government agencies, dysfunctional bureaucracies, training, utilisation of information technology and adaptation to culture were identified as key issues. It is recommended that a balanced approach and support to these issues and challenges in implementing knowledge sharing initiatives are duly considered together with attention given to effective leadership, strategic alignments, capability and capacity building among teams

The role of knowledge management in improving the adoption and implementation practices of industrialised building system (IBS) in Malaysia

In Malaysia, the strategic changes towards the promotion of the concept of Industrialized Building System (IBS) started in 1998. It is envisaged that the benefits expected from the adoption of IBS will have positive and dramatic impact on the culture of building practices. An important issue which is likely to influence the wider and successful implementation of IBS is the role that knowledge management plays in this regard. This relates to such issues as the knowledge ability and skills of the workforce, and the role that knowledge sharing plays in effective decision making processes to do with IBS implementation in its many and different disguises. Through a literature review, and from a knowledge management perspective, this paper highlights some of the main issues that may contribute to the implementation of IBS in Malaysia construction industry. This paper also reviews existing strategies associated with the adoption for IBS, especially as they relate to lack of knowledge and awareness among industry players and stakeholders. Some conclusions are offered relating to the level of knowledge needed to change the readiness and perception of key stakeholders toward successful and wide adoption of IBS. These include, inter alia, the need for improvement of existing university curricular related to design and construction process, continuous learning among professionals, training and knowledge sharing initiatives. This paper recommends that a robust and holistic approach to the adoption of IBS is needed and vital in order to tackle the many and related issues to do with both the adoption and implementation of IBS in Malaysia. This integrated approach should consider the knowledge awareness, strategic procurement, production process philosophies, contractual arrangement, strategic policy and decision making process to mention but a few

Measuring the impact of knowledge sharing on the planning permission process in Malaysian local authorities

organizations like local authorities, the ability to effectively share knowledge across organizations can lead to improved service delivery and the achievement of best practices. Hence, the degree to which an organization effectively applies knowledge sharing initiatives is an indicator of the organization’s knowledge management development; yet organizations still struggle to measure the gains it promises to offer. This paper aims to explore and measure the impact of knowledge sharing and also explores the challenges which organizations face in delivering effective policies, particularly in their role in the planning permission process. The paper draws from an ongoing PhD programme; it also draws on a thorough review of the literature and on data obtained from local authorities in Malaysia. The paper highlights the potential benefits of knowledge sharing in organizations. The paper concludes that measuring the impact of knowledge sharing in local authorities is challenging. The findings also indicate that organizational performance is dependent on the effective use andmanagement of knowledge sharing initiatives

Knowledge mapping techniques within the construction industry: An exploratory study

The last 15 years has seen the transitioning of the industrial economy to a knowledge economy. Knowledge is now considered as the new value proposition of the post-industrial economy, which is embedded in staff and workers in the organization; and can and should be considered a key resource for competitiveness and performance. Organisations intending to effectively exploit their knowledge assets might need to effectively identify where their knowledge resides. This is the underlying principle of “knowledge mapping”. Knowledge mapping techniques aim to track the acquisition and loss of information and knowledge. It explores personal and group competencies and illustrates how knowledge flows throughout an organisation or ‘network’. This paper reports some of the findings from an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK, funded project entitled “Knowledge mapping and bringing about change for the sustainable urban environment”. This research project investigated the different types of knowledge mapping techniques that are used to bring about change from a sustainable urban environment (SUE) perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen (14) construction industry actors (architects, developers, and main contractors) and four (4) developers of knowledge mapping software tools to identify current and ‘successful’ knowledge mapping tools. The semistructured interviews investigated the mechanisms by which the construction industry actors learn (both from their experiences and from external sources of knowledge), capture knowledge and know-how and diffuse it across organisations. The interviews with software developers investigated the types of knowledge mapping tools on the market, focusing on their dynamism and potential effects for the users. Of particular interest were the capture and diffusion of knowledge and know-how related to sustainability, which was defined broadly in terms of the triple bottom line (Economic, Social and Environmental). The paper concludes that the construction industry stakeholders interviewed accept that knowledge mapping is important and have initiated or improved mechanisms (tools/techniques) to capture and diffuse information, particularly with respect to sustainability. However, generally speaking, they have not adopted off-the peg knowledge mapping software solutions. The market solutions are not seen to be cost effective, do not offer the firms added value and organisations prefer instead to invest in inhouse development of intranets and other IT enabled tools. They also rely on techniques long established in the firm (e.g. meetings, briefing notes, seminars, coaching schemes, and newsletters). This study revealed that the industry actively uses different combinations of nine out of the seventeen knowledge mapping tools identified

A literature review of the role of project management in post-disaster reconstruction

The number of natural disasters has increased sharply in the past few decades, threatening human lives, and the built environment. Recent disaster management paradigms have, arguably, shifted from disaster relief to disaster preparedness, hazard mitigation, and vulnerability reduction. Reconstruction activities are those activities in recovery and rehabilitation phase of disaster risk management; actions taken to restore and if possible improve pre-disaster living condition of affected communities. While emergency relief which by providing food, medical treatment, and shelter in immediate after disaster is considered effective, reconstruction as medium and long term recovery activity is usually slow, expensive, complex. If not addressed effectively, opportunities for community development are often lost. Based on a comprehensive literature review of reconstruction projects and processes in a few countries affected by natural disaster, this paper investigates and documents the roles of project management, and the roles of key stakeholders in reconstruction projects after disasters. It identifies and documents the key challenges in post-disaster reconstruction projects and the main procurement strategies that are available and currently in use in the reconstruction projects. It concludes with the important role that project management plays in post-disaster reconstruction projects and the importance of managing interface issues, communication and stakeholders as part of effective project management

Exploitation of knowledge mapping benefits in the facilities performance evaluation process: A conceptual framework

Previous studies in various fields have identified numbers of knowledge mapping tools and techniques that are widely used. Knowledge mapping tools and techniques assist with information and knowledge flow throughout an organization. However, for a knowledge map to be useful it must serve the purpose for which it is intended. This imposes some constrains upon which map forms are suitable and for what purpose. In the same vein, facilities performance practices is developing and evolving with change in technology, business needs and users’ expectation. Hence, the evaluation of facilities performance is arguably moving from a “primitive” financial perspective to a broader view such as users’ (customer) satisfaction, environmental and sustainability perspectives. This paper identifies various task in evaluating facilities performance, and explores the potential of knowledge mapping tools and techniques that might be of benefit to facilities management organizations. Most of what is put forward in this paper is based on an going research project as part of a PhD programme. The discussions are therefore grounded on a thorough review of literature accomplished as part of the research project. In addition, a conceptual framework for the exploitation of benefits of knowledge mapping in various stages of performance evaluation is presented and discussed. The paper concludes that facilities management organizations, by and large, are of the view that knowledge mapping is important and some have initiated and implemented tools and techniques of knowledge mapping in evaluating facilities performance. The study also revealed that the main benefits of knowledge mapping in evaluating facilities performance are: improvements in decision making process, problems identification and problem solving by providing quick access to critical information, knowledge gaps and island of expertise

The key drivers for managing sustainability-related knowledge : an empirical study

Periodically, new major forces dramatically reshape the business world. Just as globalisation, the information technology revolution and the knowledge economy have been doing for the past two decades. In the early part of this twenty-first century, the most important pressures facing businesses worldwide, especially those in the developed world, is arguably the need for integrating sustainability issues into daily business operations. For businesses, the creation of economic value by integrating corporate social and environmental responsibility issues now increasingly pose real profound strategic challenges. These complex challenges involve numerous processes carried out and influenced by many stakeholders to set the tone and guide corporate level decisions. As organisations try to meet these complex challenges, they need to be innovative. This often calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge. Therefore, knowledge resources must be properly managed to provide an environment for wellinformed decisions. Much of the sustainability related knowledge evolves around on-going learning from the actions taken by managers and stakeholders who enact the organisation’s sustainability-related change initiatives. This paper primarily reports on the empirical findings of an on-going research study, which is focused on managing change and knowledge associated with sustainability initiatives for organisational competitiveness. The paper focuses on the key drivers that have fuelled the need for managing sustainability-related knowledge. The findings are, in the main, based on semistructured interviews with fifty-nine professionals from forty UK organisations in four sectors – energy and utility, transportation, construction, and not-for-profit organisations. The paper concludes that identifying and understanding the key drivers for managing sustainability-related knowledge is a complex process. The key drivers for managing sustainability-related knowledge as revealed by the current study are to improve accessibility to sustainability-related knowledge, to identify sustainability-related knowledge assets, to improve the flow of sustainability-related knowledge, to build sustainability-related skills and capabilities and to capture key sustainability-related knowledge