Champions of practice: context and habitus for unbounded learning in construction projects

Purpose – Knowledge is recognised as a valuable resource for organizational growth and sustained competitive advantage, especially for organizations operating in uncertain and challenging environments such as construction. Within the construction industry, communities of practice (CoP) have not been effectively embraced as a strategic tool for knowledge creation and sharing within and between organizations. Accordingly, this paper aims to review CoP and present a pragmatic approach for their utilisation.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature on CoPs is provided and examples from the authors' experience are provided to demonstrate their usefulness in addressing problems that are being confronted within the construction industry.Findings – The construction industry is sceptical about adopting “management fads” and gimmick technologies that provide no strategic competitive advantage. Evidence of this can be seen with the industry's reluctance, particularly in Australia, to embrace re‐engine...

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