Assessment of Construction Practitioners’ Knowledge Sharing Attitude in Construction Projects in Nigeria

Abstract

Individuals such as construction practitioners (CPs) are the focal point of knowledge sharing (KS). KS plays a cardinal role in knowledge management (KM). It is recognised as one of the most crucial aspect of KM which leads to better performance of organisations and construction projects. Literature has shown that KS success is largely driven by individual level variables such as attitude. Studies on KS largely neglect the individual level variables, e.g. perception, motivation and attitude. Hence, there is a lack of knowledge on the influence of the determinants of attitude on construction practitioners’ (CPs’) KS attitude. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the influence of the determinants of attitude on CPs' KS attitude in construction projects with a view to improving knowledge sharing among CPs. The determinants of KS attitude and their components were identified from literature and were used to conduct a survey to assess the CPs' KS attitude. Quantitative method was adopted for this research and the data were collected using structured questionnaire administered to 174 Construction practitioners using Stratified Random Sampling. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The study identified six determinants of KS attitude with four independent (perceiver, target, intensity and persistence) and two dependents (cognitive and affective). It was found out that the CPs perceiver, target, intensity and persistence as determinants of KS has influence on KS attitude. The study also found a high significant influence between measures of CPs’ motivation (intensity & persistence) KS attitude compared to measures of their perception (perceiver & target) and the strongest influence is between CPs intensity and their cognitive. The study concludes that CP’s as the perceivers and KS as what is been perceived (target) do not affect CPs knowledge sharing attitude, instead intensity and persistence (motivation) does. This study recommends that CPs should be educated about their perception of KS. The study recommends that construction practitioners level of motivation should be increased because motivation is what derives them to share knowledge rather than perception.