ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES OF THE NIGERIAN QUANTITY SURVEYING FIRMS

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) capabilities provide the supportive structure required to share knowledge within the context in which it is required in an organizations and they can encourage acquiring knowledge, protecting knowledge and facilitating knowledge sharing in an organization. This paper aims to assess the capabilities of the Nigerian Quantity Surveying firms in adopting KM concept and provide proper recommendation in order to adopt and implement KM successfully. 78 structured questionnaires were submitted to the professionals in the practicing Quantity Surveying firms to obtain the required data for the purpose of this study. A quantitative research approach was carried out to achieve the stated aim of the study. Our assessment uncovers to us the extent of KM capabilities of the Nigerian Quantity Surveying firms and also pin point the grey areas such as motivation that should be improved in order to adopt and implement KM successfully. The statistical sample of the respondents participated in the questionnaire survey was limited to only practicing Quantity Surveying Consultancy firms resident in Kaduna and Kano states of Nigeria and this could affect the generalization of the findings to the entire country. The structure of the questionnaire search was focused only on the capabilities of the practicing Quantity Surveying Consultancy firms in view of adopting KM and the variables considered was restricted to only knowledge-based capabilities (creativity, intelligence, skills, motivation and communication) whereas resource-based capabilities (organizational culture, structure and technology infrastructure) was not give much emphasis in this research work. This research consolidates collective movement towards implementation of KM in the Nigerian Quantity Surveying Consultancy firms and forms a guide for improving KM capabilities in these firms.