Challenges to the Adoption of Knowledge Management in Civil Engineering Construction Firms in Ghana

Knowledge Management is very vital to Civil Engineering (CE) construction firms in creating, identifying, sharing of knowledge on best practices, learning lessons and experiences within the organization. Therefore, as CE construction projects have specific goals and unique deliverables that are not the same, there may be difficulties in recording and capturing project knowledge efficiently. This study sought to explore the critical challenges and key strategies associated with the adoption of knowledge management (KM) in civil engineering construction firms. A questionnaire was designed based on an extensive literature search, and sent to 13 CE construction firms comprising 70 professionals. Based on the data collected, a relative importance score matrix was developed. The findings from this study revealed that key among the challenges associated with the adoption of knowledge management is lack of available KM systems, lack of leadership support and lack of awareness of KM practices. Furthermore, innovation, awareness creation and use of knowledge storage were among the key strategies which the respondents felt should be put in place to improve on the adoption of KM. The findings from this study should enable top management in the construction sector to adopt proactive approaches to improve knowledge sharing in order to improve on performance.