Individual learning in construction projects: professions and their approaches

Journal article, 2008

New materials, use of sophisticated technologies and increased customer demands, in combination with growing competition among construction companies, have led to a high degree of specialization. For successful integration of the different professional specialists, there is a need for shared learning between project co-workers. Based on twenty eight interviews in six different Swedish construction projects, this paper illustrates strategies for individual and shared learning, among different actors and across various organizational boundaries. The results indicate that personal networks are the most common source of learning for all professions. While clients, architects, and designers also engage in reading and attending courses, site managers and workers are less engaged in these activities. Experimenting and organizing for learning appear to be underutilized strategies by all professions. This leads to the conclusion that attempts to increase learning have to address the differences in learning behaviors of the various groups. Further, focus on experimenting and organizing for learning is a possibility to change the learning behavior from learning as a consequence of problems to learning for future improvement.