Assessment of CII knowledge implementation at the organizational level
Abstract
The construction industry has become increasingly more competitive and
organizations need to continuously improve in order to remain successful. One
way of improving organizations is implementing knowledge or existing research
products typically developed by various universities and research institutes such
as the Construction Industry Institute (CII). Although there are valuable research
products available which have tremendous potential to improve construction
project performance as well as the organization’s business processes, many of
them have not been implemented to a significant extent on real world projects
(CII, 1995). Despite the importance of the implementation effort, there is little
research focused on the implementation of existing research products or methods
of measuring the degree of the implementation effort.
The traditional philosophy of construction management places great
emphasis on the ability to plan and execute individual projects (Chinowsky,
2000). In contrast, a similar emphasis on the overall ability of an organization is
many times lacking in the construction industry. This dissertation focuses on
assessing a construction organization’s implementation effort at organizational
level using construction-related knowledge that CII has developed.
A survey questionnaire was developed based on the information gathered
from literature and inputs from industry participants to evaluate organizational
implementation status. The survey was validated through two pilot tests and the
finalized questionnaire was distributed to 88 CII member organizations including
both owner and contractor companies.
The data collected from surveys were analyzed by using independentsamples
t tests, ANOVA, and reliability tests. Based on the survey data, the CII
Knowledge Implementation Index (CKII) was developed to quantify the level of
organizational implementation status. Evaluation of the CKII against other
implementation indicators, such as project use indices, verified that the CKII is
consistent with other related measures. The level of the CII Best Practice
implementation was also evaluated in terms of the frequency and intensity. A
significant and positive relationship was found between the CKII and project
performance as measured in various performance variables. Research procedures,
conclusions, and recommendations for industry and for future research are also
discussed in this dissertation.
Description
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