Sammendrag
Nowadays, many construction organisations try to re-engineer their business processes in order to improve the performance and productivity of construction projects. At the same time, it is still unclear which techniques are necessary to implement such a change. One of them appears to be KM and OL. The necessity to learn from one project to the other is essential, however often ignored. Or even when learning from projects takes place, it often fails to deliver the intended results. The insufficient knowledge transfer has been identified as one of the main reasons hindering the successful project delivery. These are several factors impeding learning and knowledge transfer between construction projects. These include the fragmented nature of the industry, the lack of involvement from stakeholders and project owners as well as structural complexity of projects are observed. There is a lot of literature on KM and OL in the construction context but organisations still struggle with the identification of effective ways of learning to improve their processes and performance.
The aim of this thesis was therefore to introduce the concepts of KM, OL and relevant terminology, identify the building blocks of a LO and finally find out how learning performance can be measured. The paper is based on a literature review of previous research carried out in the field of KM/OL and learning performance measurement within the context of projects in the construction industry.
It starts with summarizing the literature pertaining to KM/OL in order to provide a better understanding of the topic.
To find out the current state of the KM/OL level in the company “The Learning Organization Survey” (LOS) inspired by Garvin et al. (2008) has been used to determine how well the company functions as a LO and assess how it fulfils the criteria for being a LO. In the next step a questionnaire inspired by the book of Williams (2007) named Post-Project Reviews To Gain Effective Lessons Learned has been used to answer specific questions about how the Multiconsult company learn lessons from projects and review the extent to which the organization applies different KM tools, processes and learning practices.
A way to assess the relationships between elements that endorse and affect KM and learning performance offers measurement. Without measurement it is not possible to evaluate whether learning occurs and whether it has any effect on performance. KM and learning activities and their benefits are proved to management only by measures that allow them to track their progress and performance. An organization should have metrics in place that allow an evaluation of learning performance. For this purpose an overview of selected performance indicators has been carried out. Taking into account the results, the quantitative and qualitative learning PIs have been proposed to the company for consideration. These PIs should enable the company to evaluate the present situation, monitor changes, quantify achievements and results and identify areas for improvement.
Finally, the conclusion is drawn and the direction for future research suggested.