Learning from SME site managers through debriefing

Boyd, D; Egbu, CO; Chinyio, E; Lee, CCT

Abstract

Site managers acquire knowledge through solving complex problems in their day-today
work. However, the construction industry does not capture this valuable
experience formally for the greater benefit of all. If this body of knowledge could be
collected, structured and disseminated, there would be significant benefits to the
construction industry at large. A research is reported here where the tacit knowledge
residing with some site managers of ‘small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) is being
explicated. 32 site managers from 12 construction SMEs are involved in the research,
where stories are used as a basis of recollecting previous events. The participating site
managers are debriefed on their stories in order to explicate learning from the events
and transform the knowledge gained into a form that is accessible to a wider audience.
The preliminary debriefings carried out so far have succeeded in capturing tacit
knowledge and extracting greater learning from the daily problem-solving events of
these site managers.

Citation

Boyd, D., Egbu, C., Chinyio, E., & Lee, C. Learning from SME site managers through debriefing. Presented at Construction and Building Research Conference 2004, Leeds

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Construction and Building Research Conference 2004
• Conference Location: Leeds
• End Date: Sep 8, 2004
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2004
• Deposit Date: Feb 1, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2017
• Keywords: dairy, debriefing, knowledge management, storytelling
• Related Public URLs: http://www.rics.org/uk/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference