Investigation of knowledge management based on Nonaka and Tekeuchi model in Mashhad Municipality

ABSTRACT: Due to the latest threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to keep ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organizational resource, which if used effectively can offer competitive advantage. A lot of attention is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today’s organizations. Fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project poses a challenge. The first step in deployment of knowledge management practice in company is determining the knowledge level in that organization. This research will try to determine the knowledge level in the municipality as a main part of the construction industry of each society. It has dealt with a lot of problems in making an integrated information document. For that purpose, the model of Nonaka and Takehuchi (N&T) was used which is a model for determining knowledge level. In contrast to other models, this model concentrates on both explicit and implicit knowledge and on the way they change to each other, and considers how they are produced in all organizational levels (individual, group, and organizational). This is the reason why this model was used. I order to achieve this aim, after determining the statistical society, questionnaires based on the areas of Nonaka and Takeuchi (N&T) model were distributed, gathered and examined in the offices. Then total score of municipality was assessed based on the questionnaire survey. At the end, the knowledge level was investigated based on the obtained score. The municipality of Mashhad-Iran has been chosen as a case study, because of the easy access to information than elsewhere. Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Nonaka and Takeuchi Model, Tacit and Explicit Knowledge. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………