Insights on Knowledge Transfer in a Medium-Sized Construction Company: Barriers and Enablers

Abstract

Knowledge is a vital resource for an organisation and knowledge transfer within project-based organisations is an important process of knowledge management. This topic is considered difficult to perceive and even harder to implement. The study took place in Gothenburg and was conducted together with Tommy Byggare, a medium-sized construction company located in the southwest of Sweden. Tommy Byggare had experienced inefficiency regarding their work with knowledge transfer and wishes to improve this process, with hope that it would facilitate the overall quality within the company. The aim with this thesis is to investigate and determine what the current barriers with knowledge transfer are in a medium-sized construction company and to see what enablers there are to improve the work with this process. The foundation of the thesis is built on previous literature on this subject and on an interview study. There was one explorative interview in the beginning of the thesis followed by ten interviews, where the participants were white collar workers with various working roles. The interviews were semi-structured, which helped to map the current barriers. The results from the interview were then analysed and compared to the literature, which led to suggestions for possible enablers for improvements in this area. Several issues were found in the interview study, which were assembled into six main barriers: inconveniency, lack of time, imperceptibility, lack of responsibility, lack of transparency and incoherency. These key barriers are presumed to hinder the progress of knowledge transfer, which led to possible enablers. The study indicated that governance, organisational culture, communication, and user-friendly knowledge transfer systems were factors that could facilitate improvements of knowledge transfer processes. These results aim to provide medium-sized construction companies with insights on what to focus on when improving the work with knowledge transfer.