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This case appears in the book, Case Studies in Knowledge Management edited by Murray Jennex © 2005, Idea Group Inc.

Chapter VIII

Knowledge Management
in a Project Climate
Elayne Coakes, University of Westminster, UK

Anton Bradburn, University of Westminster, UK

Cathy Blake, Taylor Woodrow, UK

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This case study concerns the company Taylor Woodrow, which is a housing, property,
and construction business operating internationally in situations where frontline
operations are characterised by project management. Construction projects can
sometimes carry substantial risk, and this case examines the role of knowledge
management at Taylor Woodrow in minimising the probability of mischance by
promoting best practice and lessons learned. The case shows how best practice can be
developed through knowledge-sharing facilitated by networks of relationships. Some
relationships are external — between the company, its partners, suppliers, and
customers. Other relationships are internal — between frontline managers on
construction sites and headquarters’ staff. The case study indicates how knowledge is
collated and distributed for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders.

BACKGROUND
The UK construction industry contributes about 10% of the UK’s gross domestic
product (GDP) and employed some 1.4 million people in 2001-2002 (DTI, 2002). Construc-
tion in the UK is a fragmented trade where there is constant pressure from clients for

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permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
 Knowledge Management in a Project Climate 131

improvement and innovation in performance. Such is this pressure that the DTI (Depart-
ment of Trade and Industry, the Government body responsible in the UK) invested £16.5
million in 2002 on a programme of construction-related innovation and research to
develop and disseminate information and knowledge.

Taylor Woodrow: General Company Background

Taylor Woodrow is an international housing and development company employing
over 7,000 people worldwide. Its primary business is house building, which accounts for
more than 95% of its operating profit. The company is the second largest UK-based house
builder, delivering 10,000 new homes in the UK, along with around 3,800 new homes in
North America, Spain, and Gibraltar each year. The company’s UK house-building
operation trades mainly under the Bryant Homes brand. In Canada, homes are marketed
as Monarch, and in the United States and Spain, directly under the Taylor Woodrow
brand.
In the UK, the company currently trades from a network of 11 regional offices,
incorporating a central office based in the West Midlands and the construction head-
quarters in Watford. In addition to housing and commercial property developments,
Taylor Woodrow also undertakes Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects under the UK
Government’s Private Finance Initiative, mainly in healthcare. The company also under-
takes facilities management and specialist engineering consultancy through Taylor
Woodrow Construction. This unique skill base of integrated housing, property, and
construction expertise ensures that Taylor Woodrow is particularly well equipped to
tackle more complex developments, often on brownfield sites in high-profile city centre
locations, and up to 30% of the company’s construction activity is now in-house support
to deliver large and mixed-use housing and commercial projects for the company.
Taylor Woodrow’s core market is the UK with 71% of revenue in 2002 (http://
uk.biz.yahoo.com/, 2003). The remainder of revenue comes from North America (25%),
and the rest of the world (mainly Spain and Gibraltar) supplies the remaining 4%. In 2003,
turnover was up 7% and profit before tax was up 20% on the previous year (Interim
Results Statement, June 30, 2003, available on Web site).
According to the company’s Web site (http://www.taylorwoodrow.com/), Taylor
Woodrow’s vision is to be “the leading developer of living and working environments
in the UK and other chosen markets.”
The company Web site also details full information about the company’s
1. stated culture;
2. principles;
3. objectives;
4. responsibility (to shareholders, customers, people, those with whom they do
business, and society);
5. business integrity;
6. health, safety, and environment;
7. community (they seek to be responsible corporate citizens);
8. political activities (they do not support political parties or policies in any form);
9. competition (they support free enterprise);
10. communication (open); and

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permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
132 Coakes, Bradburn, and Blake

11. corporate governance (detailing the directors, the board, and other committees,
how internal control is carried out, investor relations, and corporate social respon-
sibility policy).

SETTING THE STAGE

Knowledge management began in Taylor Woodrow in 2000 and centred on techni-
cal knowledge managed by a team based at the Technology Centre in Leighton Buzzard,
UK. The remit of the knowledge manager at Taylor Woodrow was to manage knowledge
on a groupwide basis. The main reason that knowledge management was introduced
related to the board recognising that Taylor Woodrow needed a systematic process to
better manage its substantial technical knowledge base. Hence improving the dissemi-
nation of best practice and lessons learned, thus reducing technical risks on its projects.
So the knowledge management initiative was an approach to sharing technical excellence
and best practice, and to demonstrate added value and business differential to their
clients. It was able to demonstrate reduced costs and successful learning on projects to
both new and existing clients, which helped maintain client relationships and encouraged
repeat business. In 2001-2002 its main emphasis was on defect reduction and producing
better buildings for clients, thus KM has been integrated into its construction project
processes to add value from which both customers and shareholders benefit.

CASE DESCRIPTION
KM, according to Taylor Woodrow’s KM manager “is primarily about people and
how they behave and how they solve problems.” In order to ensure the initiative is well
supported, she felt that one needs to persuade the senior management initially as they
are the real influencers of construction project outcomes. The KM process incorporates
managers to reduce risks early in the construction process and consider the outcomes
of actions, which were taken in previous projects. Enthusiasm for the initiative has come
from board level and this is essential to gain support from operational (frontline)
managers.
A number of forums have been set up in Taylor Woodrow for design managers,
project managers, graduates, and commercial managers, which look at improving pro-
cesses and sharing knowledge. It would seem that the most important motivator in Taylor
Woodrow for participation in these forums and to undertake KM was not only kudos but
being able to make improvements to the business. The forums were headed up by senior
managers, and to be seen to be actively participating and encouraging improvements at
the forums was good for professional development for some participants.
So far, the forums have primarily concentrated on sharing best practice and the
Taylor Woodrow KM manager hopes that in the future more project managers will feel
able to talk about projects where processes went wrong, how they have learned from the
experience, and how they can do better next time. To start the process, Taylor Woodrow
has begun to publish a Top Tips bulletin, which anonymises the projects and issues. This
particular initiative is similar to a Government scheme, which is called Movement for
Innovation, where best practice on construction projects will be captured and dissemi-
nated across the industry.

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 Knowledge Management in a Project Climate 133

Whilst the KM manager sees herself as a facilitator within the company, Taylor
Woodrow has developed and implemented an IT-enabled infostructure called Tayweb
for the distribution of organizational knowledge. There are seven main areas that Tayweb
supports. These are as follows:
1. One Company – company information;
2. News;
3. People – HR and training;
4. The Way We Work – processes;
5. Knowledge Share;
6. Central Services;
7. Office Zone – information on regional offices.

The Knowledge Share portal of Tayweb can usefully be modelled in terms of a

subway metaphor as shown in Figure 1.
This subway operates continuously beneath Taylor Woodrow’s business opera-
tions supporting the enterprise and its business strategies. In this activity, it is
analogous to a computer program constantly running in the background behind other
applications. The model, however, only represents the KM system in a single plane,
which belies its complexity as it functions in a multidimensional space having a form more
like a bowl of spaghetti (Kolind, 1996). The company utilised an eight-step knowledge
transfer model (O’Dell, Greyson, & Essaides, 1998) in order to inform the design of its KM
system. This involved “focusing on creating, identifying, collecting and organizing

Figure 1. Taylor Woodrow’s IT-enabled KM system – Tayweb

PEOPLE
CONTACTS
LISTS
ACTION

& LETTERS
STANDARD FORMS

NEWS &
TRAINING & INFORMATION
INFORMATION PROGRAMMES
MEETINGS SCHEDULES

SOCIAL EVENTS

EDM ARCHIVE

EXTERNAL WEB COMPANY PROCEDURES

DRAWINGS SITE LINKS
REPOSITORY SITE SET-UP

EXTRANET TECHNICAL
SERVICE NEWS

SECURE PROJECT
SPECIFIC WEBSITE(S)
TOP TIPS
EXTRANET INFORMATION
SECURE PROJECT CENTRE
SPECIFIC WEBSITE(S) TECHNICAL
HELPLINE
EXTERNAL WEATHER

TECHNICAL CORPORATE
R&D
HELPDESK BSI ON-LINE
INTERNET
PRACTICE EXAMPLES

BUSINESS SPECIFIC
SERVICE

INFORMATION
EXTERNAL
EXTERNAL BEST

BI-DIRECTIONAL SERVICES
ACCESS
FLOWS OF
INFORMATION &
KNOWLEDGE H&S ON-LINE

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permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
134 Coakes, Bradburn, and Blake

best practices and internal knowledge, in order to understand what [organizations] know
and where [the knowledge] is. The process must explicitly address sharing and under-
standing of those practices by motivated recipients. Finally, the process involves
helping the recipients adapt and apply those practices to new situations, to create new
‘knowledge’ and put it into action” (O’Dell et al., 1998).
Tayweb is Taylor Woodrow’s intranet, which carries users to any one of seven
portals as detailed previously. Technical Service News is an electronic, interactive
publication summarising the latest technical innovations, legislation, and best practice
and is available in the Knowledge Share portal on Tayweb. This provides access to Taylor
Woodrow’s in-house technical helpline, to online British standards, construction
information, online health and safety standards, and provides links to external Web sites
for weather information and industry best-practice examples via the Internet. It is also
e-mailed on a monthly basis to technical staff.
The Technical Help Desk (THD) is a facility through which the company’s Tech-
nology Centre offers its specialist technical expertise. Frequent analyses of inquiries to
the THD are used to generate Top Tips (technical guidelines), which demonstrate what
lessons have been learnt and what innovations have been introduced, both of which
constitute new organizational knowledge. In addition, the queries to the THD will also
generate seminars and workshops for training purposes (note here that engineers and
surveyors who are members of professional bodies such as the Institute of Building and
Civil Engineering, or the Institute of Chartered Surveyors, are required by their profes-
sional bodies to do a certain number of continual professional development hours per
year in order to maintain their qualification).
An important part of the tendering process for projects includes risk assessment
and the KM system is a vital source of both technical and historical data that project
managers need to access to discover what has been done in the past, and what are the
current best practices. In addition, as the managers on construction project sites have
laptops issued and the project managers for homes building operate from a regional office
with computer access, they will also have access to these technical guidelines. Site general
foreman tend not to have computers and so phone for information, their knowledge
requirement is part of their social network — they need to know who to phone for help.
Site Setup is primarily an information portal and is an interactive guidance tool the
purpose of which is to assist a project manager in setting up a new construction site. At
this one-stop shop, project managers have links to external Web sites for other
organizations such as the police service, the fire brigade, and the local authority. In
addition to the company’s own procedures, the site provides a checklist of actions
required for sites being newly established as well as a yellow pages of people contacts.
There is also a repository of standard forms and business stationery. The intranet also
contains organizational structures, what the company’s departments do, project profiles,
and so forth.
Although Figure 1 shows only one portal through which a secure Web site can be
accessed, there could be several. Taylor Woodrow establishes these extranets on a
project-specific basis for blue-chip clients such as airports and supermarkets. These are
vortals, collaborative project Web sites bounding virtual communities of practice, which
are live for the duration of each contract. These vortals confer all the advantages of
electronic document management repositories but with additional benefits deriving from
Internet access. Each community member has available a directory of teams, a repository

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permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
 Knowledge Management in a Project Climate 135

of drawings in two and three dimensions continually updated, a document archive

including photographs of work in progress, news and information, schedules of meet-
ings, programmes of induction and training, and even listings of social events.
Finally, Tayweb’s Knowledge Share portal features a centralised interactive facil-
ity, which is available to Taylor Woodrow’s entire workforce providing an extensive
range of library information services. Here, there are online services such as British
standards, health and safety information, and construction information. It also enables
users to access a technical library and to order documents.
The perceived returns by Taylor Woodrow from its investment in KM are primarily
in terms of the use of best practice and lessons learnt to improve the quality and reduce
the defects of their product. In the construction industry, defects can be very costly both
in monetary terms and client relationships. Thus KM in this company supports quality
management. Measures are now in place for quantifying the return on investment for
Taylor Woodrow’s KM system and they are being developed to demonstrate added
value in monetary terms. The benefits of qualitative outcomes and some assessments of
cost savings are collated in Table 1.

Table 1. Returns from knowledge management at Taylor Woodrow

Technical Technical Top Tips Site Set-Up Secure Project Information
News Service Helpdesk News Web Sites Centre
Increased Reduction in Project managers Faster access to Offers Taylor
Efficiency Of time spent by spend less time information and Woodrow fast
Information senior implementing quicker response access to
Management managers site set-up times knowledge
searching for procedures
information
Permanent Global 24/7 access 24/7 access 24/7 access 24/7 access Instant global 24/7 access
Availability access anytime
Administrative Reductions in Reductions in Reductions in Reductions in Reduces routine Reductions in
Cost Reduction paperwork paperwork paperwork paperwork administration paperwork
Access & Response Faster access to
Time Reductions information and
quicker response
times
Dissemination Proactively More time
Leadtime keeping available to
Reduction managers concentrate on
informed of value added
the latest activities
innovations
On-Site Enabling Project managers
Productivity managers to spend less time
Improvement make better implementing
informed site set-up
decisions procedures
Savings - examples 1. Investigation More time Relatively Enables Taylor
of tar macadam available to inexpensive to Woodrow to work
defects saves concentrate on establish more efficiently
£60,000; value added
2. Cavity wall activities
ties save
£14,000 in
stone façade
fixture;
3. Design life
technology
applied to a flat
inverted roof
saves client
£10,800;
4. Re-designed
stainless steel
wind posts save
£20,000.

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permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
136 Coakes, Bradburn, and Blake

CONCLUSIONS
Over the period we have been studying Taylor Woodrow, the organization has
become more aware of the value KM has been able to add to the organization. Increas-
ingly, project staff and management have seen the benefits of communicating their
innovations to others in the organization and lessons learnt are being captured in an
increasingly systematic way. Taylor Woodrow is able to demonstrate conclusively to its
clients that it is a learning organization. KM has a very high significance for the board,
which provides specific funding for its development and dissemination.

DISCUSSION
Construction projects embody risk. The larger the project the higher the potential
cost penalties. How can risk of this nature be mitigated? Obviously, insuring against risk
is one course, but this generates additional costs, as a third party — an insurance
company — requires compensation for assuming the construction company’s risk.
Another way of insuring against risk by reducing the probability of mischance is to
leverage knowledge assets within the business.
How then to capture what individuals know and then to distribute this knowledge
so that it can be shared throughout an organization? The willingness of individuals to
articulate knowledge gained through involvement in work processes may depend on the
organization’s prevailing cultural paradigm. Some organizational cultures may be resis-
tant to knowledge sharing — others may facilitate it. Sometimes knowledge transfer can
be encouraged by incentivising staff in some way. Taylor Woodrow’s approach seems
to be driven primarily by the self-esteem generated from peer recognition. The company’s
culture seems to be receptive to KM and has enabled it to become embedded in the
organizational fabric.
The importance of ICTs needs to be recognised, but these technologies are only
enablers. They are not the key drivers. The critical driver in this instance may be seen
as social capital, which comprises sets of relationships and networks underpinning
knowledge sharing. Out of knowledge sharing comes learning, and learning at an
organizational level delivers a range of business benefits in addition to ensuring that
potentially costly errors are not repeated. Some of the Tayweb links signify the
importance of these relationships in partnering and collaborations of various kinds not
only through the intranet, but also through the various project-specific extranets.

REFERENCES
Bradburn, A., Coakes, E., & Sugden, G. (2002). Searching for linkages between knowledge
management, learning organization and organizational culture within large service
enterprises in the United Kingdom: What KM practitioners say. In M. Khosrow-
Pour (Ed.), Issues and trends of information technology management in contem-
porary organizations, IRMA 2002, Seattle, May, vol. 2 (pp. 928-930). Hershey, PA:
Idea Group Publishing.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). (2002). Construction statistics annual 2002
edition. London: The Stationery Office.

Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written
permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
 Knowledge Management in a Project Climate 137

Kolind, L. (1996). The revolution at Oticon: Creating a spaghetti organization. Research

Technology Management, 39(5), 54.
O’Dell, C., Greyson, C.J., & Essaides, W. (1998). If only we knew what we know. New York:
Free Press.

Additional Recommended Reading

Kazi, A.S. (2004). Knowledge management in the construction industry: A socio-
technical perspective. Hershey, PA: Idea Group.

Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written
permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.