Assessment of Organizational Leadership for Knowledge Management Practice in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Assessment of Organizational Leadership for Knowledge Management Practice in the Nigerian Construction Industry

ABSTRACT  

The Nigeria Construction Industry (NCI) is characterised as slow to innovation and lacks the capacity to deliver when juxtaposed with other developing countries with similar developmental challenges at about the 1970s;

despite the industry state in Nigeria, researches have continued to suggest ways of improving service delivery in the industry.

One of such ways is the massive campaigning from research and industry for the NCI to adopt concepts of Knowledge Management (KM) to improve service delivery.

The aim of this study was to assess organisational leadership for the adoption of KM practice in the NCI. The objectives of the study are; to identify the attributes of leadership behaviours and KM;

to establish the leadership behaviours exhibited by consulting firms in the NCI; to establish whether the consulting firms in the NCI exhibits KM;

and to examine the relationship between leadership behaviours and KM. The instrument used for data collection in this study was a structured questionnaire.

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION——— i
DEDICATION————– ii
CERTIFICATION———— iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS———— iv
ABSTRACT———– vi
TABLE OF CONTENT———– vii

CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION——————————————————— 1
1.1 Background of the study———————————————————————– 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem———————————————————————- 4
1.3 Need for the Study—————————————————————————— 4
1.4 Aim and Objectives—————————————————————————– 5
1.5 Scope and Limitations————————————————————————— 5

CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW———————————————— 7
2.1 Construction Industry—————————————————————————- 7
2.2 The Nigeria Construction Industry————————————————————- 8
2.3 Organisation————————————————————————————– 9
2.4 Leadership and Innovation——————————————————————— 10
2.4.1 The „leadership for innovation‟ conceptual framework———————————- 12
2.5 Transformational Leadership Theory——————————————————— 13
2.5.1 Components of transformational leadership———————————————– 15
2.6 Transactional Leadership Theory————————————————————– 19
2.6.1 Characteristics of Transactional Leadership———————————————– 19
2.7 Laissez – Faire Leadership Theory———————————————————— 19
2.8 Full Range of Leadership Model————————————————————— 20
2.9 Fundamentals of Knowledge Management (KM) —————————————— 22
2.10 KM: Issues of Strategy, Structure, Culture, Technology——————————— 28
2.11 Leadership in Knowledge Organisations————————————————— 30
2.12 The Importance of Senior Management Commitment———————————— 33
2.13 Importance of Knowledge Worker in Construction—————————————- 35

CHAPTER THREE – RESEARCH METHODS——————————————— 38
3.1 Research Approach—————————————————————————— 38
3.2 The Self-Administered Questionnaire Survey———————————————– 38
3.3 Data Collection Instrument——————————————————————— 39
3.4 Sampling—————————————————————————————— 40
3.4.1 Study Population—————————————————————————— 40
3.4.2 Sampling Frame and Sample Size———————————————————- 40
3.5 Data Analysis————————————————————————————- 41

CHAPTER FOUR – DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS– 43
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis————————————————————— 43
4.2 Establishing the Leadership Behaviours exhibited by
Consulting Firms in the NCI——————————————————————- 44
4.2 Establishing whether the Consulting firms in the NCI
Exhibits KM————————————————————————————- 47
4.3 Examining the interplay between leadership behaviours and KM
Behaviours—————————————————————————————-52
4.4 Discussion of Results————————————————————————– 57

CHAPTER FIVE – SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS– 60
5.1 Summary of Findings————————————————————————– 60
5.2 Conclusion————————————————————————————— 60
5.3 Recommendation——————————————————————————– 61
5.4 Notes for Further Studies————————————————————————62

REFERENCES——– 63
APPENDIX 1———–71

INTRODUCTION  

The Nigeria Construction Industry (NCI) has been described as a „sleeping giant‟ in terms of service delivery and capacity to satisfy the needs of its clients (Kolo and Ibrahim, 2010).

There is a consensus among academic researchers and professionals that the Nigeria Construction Industry (NCI) is slow to innovation (Odediran et al., 2012) and lacks the capacity to deliver.

Kolo and Ibrahim (2010) buttressed the „sleeping giant‟ status of the NCI when juxtaposed with other developing countries with similar developmental challenges at about the 1970s,

Malaysia, Japan, Korea (Cheah and Ting, 2005), Kenya, Ghana, South Africa (Bowen et al., 2007), and Saudi Arabia (Al-Yami and Price, 2006; Alalshikh and Male, 2009) have long realised the need to improve their service delivery capacity.

Despite the industry state in Nigeria, researches have continued to suggest ways of improving service delivery in the industry;

one of such ways is the massive campaigning from research and industry for the NCI to adopt concepts of Knowledge Management (KM) to improve the situation (Anago, 2006: Sodiya et al., 2006: NIQS, 2012).

The construction industry is being increasingly challenged to successfully innovate in order to satisfy the aspirations and needs of society and clients and to improve its competiveness (Latham, 1994). 

REFERENCES

Advanced Institute of Management Research (2005) „Leadership for Innovation‟.

Akinsola, A. and Potts, K.F. (1998) A Methodology for Evaluation of the Variation
Clause in the Standard Form of Contract, Proceeding of COBRA 98, RICS

Alalshikh, M. A., and Male, S. (2009). The Development of a Value Management
Approach for the Saudi Public Sector. COBRA 2009 – The Construction and
Building Research Conference of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveoys (pp.
60-72). Cape Town: Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Al-Ghassani, A.M (2003) Improving the structural design process: a knowledge
management approach. PhD Thesis, Loughborough University, UK.

Al-Yami, A., and Price, A. D. (2006). Assessing the feasibility of using value
management to accelerate the implementation of sustainability. 6th International
Postgraduate Conference in the Built and Research Institute for the Built and
Human Environment, Vol 1, pp. 765-774. Delft.

Anumba, C., Egbu, C. and Carrillo, P (2007) Knowledge Management in Construction.
Blackwell Publishing