2. 2
• Analysing knowledge management activities
within as corporate setting
• Advising on the implementation of knowledge
management activities within a corporate
setting
Learning outcomes
of this Seminar
3. 3
Reading & Activity
Need to read:
Woods Bagot Case Study
Pages 316 to 218 in Jashapara (2011)
Get into groups and discuss the following
questions ready to present to the class
4. Questions
1. What advice would you give Mark Mitcheson-Low to set up
a virtual community between their Dubai and Adelaide
studios?
2. What changes can Woods Bagot make to their offices to
encourage greater engagement and interaction between
staff?
3. What knowledge management strategy is most appropriate
for Woods Bagot?
5. Tutor’s Input
1. What advice would you give Mark Mitcheson-Low to set up a virtual
community between their Dubai and Adelaide studios?
• Ask Directors and Principals to provide leadership and to lead by example
• Look at optimal technological infrastructure to support virtual communities,
including use of webcams and video-conferencing
• Provide staff with necessary training in use of technology
6. Tutor’s Input
1. What advice would you give Mark Mitcheson-Low to set up a virtual
community between their Dubai and Adelaide studios?
• Market virtual community pilot through internal newsletters, PUBLIC
magazines and other sources
• Link engagement of community with staff appraisal
• Provide awards for best stories and examples of knowledge sharing and
recognition of excellence in knowledge sharing by peers
7. Tutor’s Input
2. What changes can Woods Bagot make to their offices to encourage greater
engagement and interaction between staff?
• Think about the architectural features of their offices that are likely to
encourage greater interactions
• Open plan offices
• Circulation pathways to encourage serendipitous meetings
• Enforce all staff to have lunch together and possibly subsidise canteens
• Use of prominent lounge and ‘coffee area’ to encourage meetings
• Greater job/staff rotation between projects
• Use of virtual spaces such as Second Life for virtual meetings with staff from
all 14 studios
8. Tutor’s Input
3. What knowledge management strategy is most appropriate for Woods
Bagot?
• ‘PUBLIC’ journal provides one strand to promote double-loop learning, challenging
assumptions and conventional thinking
• Personalisation strategy most appropriate as each building design solution is unique
and needs exchange of ideas through dialogue rather than re-using ideas stored in a
computer
• Webcams and video-conferencing technologies may be best to bring people together
to exchange ideas and save on plane fares
9. Tutor’s Input
3. What knowledge management strategy is most appropriate for Woods
Bagot?
• Database could be held on standard architectural details and specifications to avoid
repetition
• Design of Woods Bagot offices to encourage serendipitous meetings
• Promoting greater interaction between architects and engineers to develop new
ideas and thinking
• Greater interaction with architectural research institutes across the world to
challenge their own thinking and generate new ideas
