Knowledge Transferring Features in Traditional Construction Project Team in China: Based on SNA ()
1. Introduction
Transferring knowledge effectively is long been viewed as an important indicator for a company to acquire competence advantage (Linda Argotea, 2000) [1]. In practical circles, knowledge transferring can be achieved through transfer of best practices (Szulanski, 1996) [2], new product development (Hansen, 1999) [3] or learning rates (Darr et al., 1995) [4]. In academic circles, scholars consistently deem knowledge transferring abilities as an effective means to improve company’s performance (Kogut et al., 1992) [5]. In knowledge-based era, organizations are viewed as social communities specializing in efficient knowledge creation and transfer (Kogut et al., 1996) [6].
While most of previous researches take high-growth enterprises as their research objectives, seldom touching some traditional while less-developed companies (Craig Mittonn et al., 2007) [7]. Even for knowledge management in project, scholars pay too much attention on some R&D or software projects (Stanisław Gasik, 2011) [8], which are very different in terms of management style and organizational structure (Mian Ajmal et al., 2010) [9].
SNA (Social Network Analysis) is a widely used method in describing group characteristics concerning with social communication. According social network, the individuals who have connections can be grouped into a whole network, and each one is called as node in the network. So, SNA is a method in calculating some variables such as network density, cohesion degree based on ties and related weights of every pair of ties (Wasserman, 1994) [10]. So it is efficient in telling the features of group communication and the individual communication in the group.
2. The Knowledge Management in Construction Project Team
Construction company is a very special kind of body in industrial circle. It exists for a long time, and the operation style and management mode are very different. Because construction projects are site-specific, the workers are needed to leave their companies to stay at the work site. So, every new project will call for new form of project team, as well as new management style. Because project is one-time matter, related project team is also temporary. Members cannot form deep relations during their work period for short-time touch, and most of members can not even know others well before the project comes to the end of life cycle. While new project needs new working style and management ideas. Members working for the project need to learn to be adapt to new environment and new co-workers, and new commands and indications are transferred from one group to the others in order to smooth the management processes. So, knowledge, which is symbolized by tacit or implicit forms, will be transferred from one to the other among network, and related transferring effectiveness sometimes determines the final performance of this project management (Ray Reagans et al., 2003) [11].
Under China’s construction management system, a typical construction project team is generally formed by two individuals: one belongs to the first-tier contactor, usually from a contracted company; the others are called subcontractors, whose major features are informal organizational structure or legal identity and less capable in dealing with whole issues happening in construction processes.
Because most responsibilities are in charge by first-tier contractor, it assumes the whole management jobs and then decides to select the subcontractors. For the on-site work scenario, the first-tire contractor and second-tire contractors often work together to solve the knowledge problems simultaneously. So, for the natural separation of legal position, information communication is not smoothly happening among these two parties. Furthermore, the first-tire, for their excellent performance in related industries, commonly has higher technique advantage when comparing with second-tire contractors, especially under China’s context.
For the owners, the separation of contractors is not good for their management and supervision, but in order to acquire comparative advantages and achieve cost saving in construction processes, the owner from anther side is motivated to permit the existence of multi-tire contractors. In order to efficiently manage project, owners and first-tire contractors expect to reduce tedious management cost and focus on confined scope, therefore, better analysis the management scope and refine the management targets is necessary.
Because knowledge is means for different parties’ communication, the refinery of knowledge transferring structure is actually optimizing the management scope. Though there are some literatures on knowledge transferring research (Nicholas Berente, 2010) [12], few regards knowledge transferring happens in a whole network, therefore cannot fully describe the transferring structure for construction project. This paper is mainly focused on the knowledge transferring channels in a given project team. With the aid of social network analysis, this paper expects to draw up basic features of knowledge transferring in project team.
3. Case Study
3.1. Background
Luhongshi Major Bridge Construction Project belongs to the key project of Luiyang-Zhangjiang railway, which is located in Luhongshi town of Yongzhou, Hunan Province. The project has the length of 2600 m, and total cost estimation is more than 200 million RMB. In 2006, this project is contracted to a construction company from China Railway Ministry. With the authorization, the project team of 10 members is fully in charge of the contract management and 2 subcontracts have been signed to assist the labor forces requirement with the permission of owner. The subcontracts are from 2 groups: one is from Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, and it has 16 labors; the other group, which has 14 persons, is from Fuqing, Fujian province. So, the whole project team has 40 members from 3 different groups.
3.2. Case Study Processes
In order to fully describe the knowledge transferring state, case study confirms to the requirement of whole network analysis:
• To define the board line of whole network;
• To refine the questionnaire according to related research;
• To analyze the network features based on data;
• To explain the connation of results.
• 3.3. Detailed Processes
• The definition of board line Project team is the body fully in charge of the project management, so it can be regarded as a whole network in which team members communicate and knowledge transfers along the member network (Wasserman, 1994) [10]. In this case, 3 groups, i.e., the first-tire contractor and 2 labor force subcontractors are gathering into the whole network.
• Date collection Because it is only concerning with knowledge, all forms of knowledge such as indications, paperwork information, guidance, orders, notices, is considered. According to knowledge transferring rules, any two nodes can be viewed as knowledge transferring tie as long as any form of knowledge flows between them. So, the questionnaire is designed as Table 1. For only 40 members in 3 groups, we can conveniently get all questionnaires with the assistance of project manager.
Table 1. The questionnaire of knowledge transferring whole network.
• Data analysis Step 1: network description With the questionnaire in Table 1, we get 40 nodes and related relations illustrated in Figure 1. According to Figure 1, we can easily find that node 9, node 20 and node 35 have dense in (out) ties with other nodes, which means they have more opportunities to transfer knowledge than others. Actually, the nodes above are managers for 3 groups. While some nodes such as node 25, node 26, node 14 etc. have very sparse ties with others, indicating they have few channels to transfer knowledge. When tracing the nodes to real position, we find that they are freshmen and apprentices in 3 groups, and they only communicate with their overmen. From Figure 2 we can also draw the conclusion that knowledge transferring level in contractor team is higher than subcontractors.
Table 2 shows that in this whole network, whole destiny is at a low level, and average distance is comparative big with the consideration of network size. It reflects knowledge transferring in construction project whole network is not so effective. Bigger distance means high cost of knowledge transferring. In a comparative agglomerated worksite, it is not good for team cooperation and freshmen growth.