Humanistic and scientific knowledge management: A comparison of design practice between architects and engineers

Abstract

It has been suggested in more recent research findings that architectural and engineering consultancies can be characterised as knowledge intensive professional firms. Besides, the extensive use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has both positive and negative impacts on these knowledge workers. In this study, the management of design knowledge will be strictly related to the activities of the architects and engineering consultants and is conceived of here as unique, and often one off activity or process which does not end once the initial design has been created. Given this, the aim of this study is to understand, identify and highlight the importance of how design knowledge is created, captured and then managed in architectural and engineering consultants in a small office in the UK and Australia. The research questions are: once design knowledge is created how is it then managed? Is this knowledge always implicit? Does it become embedded in structures and systems? How do these firms manage it with the help of ICT? Based on two case studies in small offices; one in an small architectural firm in Australia and the other in an large engineering firm in the UK., a high level knowledge-knower structure is constructed by mapping the design knowledge in relation to each practice. From this results and findings, a preliminary framework of humanistic and scientific knowledge management in these design-intensive firms is then finally proposed that could improve the productivity of these knowledge workers in terms of reusing personal and codified knowledge.