Knowledge creation,integration and management-A study of civil engineering consulting firms

Knowledge has been recognised as a resource that is critical to any organisation’s survival and success in
the globalised market. This is even more critical for civil engineering consulting firms because they are
knowledge centric and their products are all knowledge-based. The desirability of Knowledge Creation,
Integration and Management is however varied among different firms.
The research was aimed at developing a model which could be used to establish the organisation’s
performance with regards to Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Integration, and Knowledge Management
based on the internal level of desirability. The study was set out to: establish the level of Knowledge
Creation, Integration and Management awareness within the Zambian civil engineering consulting industry;
identify key indicators of Knowledge Creation, Integration and Management in firms based on Zambian
and international surveys; deduce the desirability of Knowledge Creation, Integration and Management
within civil engineering consulting firms; develop and validate the Knowledge Creation, Integration
and Management Evaluation Model (CIMEMk); and prescribe possible uses and operations of the
CIMEMk.
The multi- paradigmatic position was adopted. Epistemologically, the research was objectivist. It was
also positivist in paradigm. Ontologically, the research was parmenidean and realist. Using a detailed
literature review, structured interviews and questionnaire surveys, the results of the study established that
the level of awareness of Knowledge Creation, Integration and Management practices within the Zambian
civil engineering consulting industry was fairly low. The key indicators of Knowledge Creation,
Knowledge Integration and Knowledge Management were also established. The study established a
total of 27 key indicators. The desirability was established as a function of the organisation’s turnover
and employee base. It was noted that Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Integration were highly
desirable for small and medium sized enterprises while the desirability for Knowledge Management was
high in medium to large sized firms within the civil engineering consulting industry.
Based on the key indicators and desirabilities for Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Integration and
Knowledge Management, the CIMEMk was formulated. The CIMEMk utilised the firms’ Knowledge
Creation, Knowledge Integration and Knowledge Management scores combined with their respective
desirability to produce the performance indices.
The CIMEMk was pretested and assessed for its functionality, validity as well as usefulness. Both Zambian
and international civil engineering consulting firms upheld the functionality, validity and usefulness of
the model. It was deduced that the CIMEMk would help enhance the competitiveness of civil
engineering consulting firms by focusing on the areas that required improvement. The use of CIMEMk is
however limited to internal performance measurement.
Keywords: Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Integration, Knowledge Management, civil engineering,
consulting firms.