Research On Project Governance Machnisms' Influence On Knowledge Transfer In The Project Context

Information resources and physical resources are always flowing across the whole life of project.Over the past few decades,people have given too much attention to the configuration of the physical resources,while ignoring the knowledge flow in the project.This sometimes leads to the failure of a project even if the allocation of physical resources has been optimizated.Therefore,project practitioners and researchers must pay more attention to knowledge management in the project in order to achieve new breakthroughs of project management.In recent years,knowledge transfer in the project context has become a hot item in the field of project management and knowledge management.Many great researchers have found out some very valuable research results,however numbers of important questions still need to be resolved in this area.In terms of project practice,the factors influencing the project knowledge transfer project are complicated,resulting in the difficulties of project knowledge transfer.In addition,in terms of heoretical study,the research findings of influencing factors of knowledge transfer in the project context are fragmented.Few researches are carried out in the perspective of project governance to explore the impact of the project governance mechanism on project knowledge transfer project.Project governance theory provides a new perspective to analyze the influencing factors of project knowledge transfer.Based on the systematical review of the research related to project governance and knowledge transfer,project governance and project governance mechanisms are firstly defined.Then the model of project governance mechanisms are set up to classify the different kinds of governance mechanisms in the project context.Secondly,from project network perspective,we propose one theoretical project knowledge transfer model to study the process of knowledge transfer in the project context.Thirdly,the theoretical model is proposed which elaborates the relationship between project governance mechanisms and project knowledge transfer.Some underlying assumptions are demonstrated and explained according to this theoretical model.Fourthly,we select some construction projects to carry out the questionnaire survey to test our assumptions.Finally,based on the results of empirical research,we propose some suggestions to enhance knowledge transfer strategies for project managers.Some conclusions are summarized as follows:1.Project governance mechanisms are defined as series of formal and informal institutional arrangements related to corporate governance and transaction governance,which aims to ensure the success of projects.Project governance mechanisms are divided into internal governance mechanisms and external governance mechanisms.Internal governance mechanisms consist of relational governance and hierarchical governance,while external governance mechanisms consist of the relational governance,hierarchical governance and contract governance.2.This dissertation puts forward a model of project knowledge transfer based on the perspective of network.We find out that knowledge transfer objects in the project context are diversified.The knowledge transfer crosses the organization and project borders.In addition,based on the theoretical model and large-scale questionnaires,we conclude the general rules of knowledge transfer of construction projects.3.Within the project team,hierarchical governance mechanism has a negative impact on the knowledge transfer while relational governance mechanism has a positive impact and plays a major role in promoting the transfer of explicit and implicit knowledge within the team.Besides,there is a more complex interaction between hierarchical governance mechanism and relational governance mechanism.4.Among the project participants,hierarchical governance mechanism and contract governance mechanism hinder the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge of among the different project participants.Besides,the relational governance mechanism has a positive impact on the knowledge transfer.Meanwhile,hierarchical governance mechanism and contract governance respectively have a dynamic correlation with relational governance mechanism.In conclusion,formal governance mechanisms and informal governance mechanisms are incorporated into a unified framework to explore the impacts of project governance on project knowledge transfer.We find out that informal governance mechanism plays a leading role in the process of knowledge transfer in terms of the project context.We believe that the research results provide a significant and realistic meaning in guiding project practitioners on improving the knowledge transfer performance.