How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

Contemporary Sociology 7(5) (September 1978):566—68. When the intellectual history of our times comes to be written, that peculiarly Left Bank mixture of Marxism and structuralism now in fashion will be among the most puzzlingofourideastoevaluate.Aliteral “archeology of knowledge” (the title of one of Foucault’s earlier books) will be required to sort out the valuable from the obvious rubbish. I suspect that in this exercise the iconographers of the present (like Barthes) will fare less well than those who have read the past. Of such “historians” (a description which does not really cover his method) Foucault is the most dazzlingly creative. Discipline and Punish (which, shamefully, has taken over two years to be translated into English) follows Madness and Civilization (1961) and The Birth of the Clinic (1971) as the next stage in Foucault’s massive project of tracing the genealogy of control institutions (asylums, teaching hospitals, prisons) and the human sciences symbiotically linked with them (psychiatry, clinical medicine, criminology, penology). His concern throughout is the relationship between power and knowledge, the articulation of each on the other. Here (as he makes explicit in an interview recently published in the English journal, Radical Philosophy) he opposes the humanist position that, once we gain power, we cease to know——it makes us blind—— and that only those who keep their distance from power, who are no way implicated in tyranny, can attain the truth. For Foucault, such forms of knowledge as psychiatry and criminology (with its “garrulous discourses” and “intermidable [sic] repetitions”) are directly related to the exercise of power. Power itself creates new objects of knowledge and accumulates new bodies of information. Thus to “liberate scientific research from the demands of monopoly capitalism” can only be a slogan. Placing such programmatic Big Issues on one side, though, a superficial first reading of the book mightstartatthelevelofitssubtitle, “The Birth of the Prison.” The key historical transition——at the end of the eighteenth century——is from punishment as torture, a public spectacle, to the more economically and politically discreet prison sentence. The body as the major target of penal repression disappears: within a few decades, the grisly spectacles of torture, dismemberment, exposure, amputation, and branding are over. Interest is transferred from the body to the mind; a coercive, solitary, and secret mode of punishment replaces one that was representative, scenic, and collective. Gone is the liturgy of torture and execution, where the triumph of the sovereign was symbolized in the processions, halts at crossroads, public readings of the sentence even after death, where the criminal’s corpse was exhibited or burnt. In its place comes a whole technology of subtle power. When punishment leaves the domain of more or less everyday perception and enters into abstract consciousness, it does not become less effective. But its effectiveness arises from its inevitability not its horrific theatrical intensity. The new power is not to punish less but to In Retrospect: 1978 29

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0094306118815499a

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison:

Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration

The Measurement of Environmental and Resource Values

This paper concludes that 4D models are a useful alternative to project scheduling tools like CPM networks and bar charts. They enable more people to understand a schedule quickly and identify potential problems. By developing a 4D model for a commercial construction project, we were able to detect the incompleteness of the original schedule, find inconsistencies in the level of detail among the schedule activities, and discover an impossible schedule sequence. We were also able to anticipate potential time-space conflicts and accessibility problems. The results of the case study show that 4D models are effective in evaluating the executability of a construction schedule. The case study also highlighted the need for improvements to 4D tools. 4D tools should include bar charts, component lists, and annotation tools in their graphical user interface. Automating schedule data preparation and 4D model generation in the design stages of a project can expedite 4D model development and use. Users need to be able to generate 4D models at multiple levels of detail and generate and evaluate alternative scenarios rapidly.

Closure of "Feasibility Study of 4D CAD in Commercial Construction"

The statistic of accidents at construction sites give us a picture that Malaysian construction industry is one of the critical sectors that need a huge and fast overhaul from the current site safety practices. Accident don’t just happen, they are caused by unsafe acts, unsafe conditions or both. Most accidents result from a combination of contributing causes and one or more unsafe acts and unsafe condition. In order to improve the overall safety performance we need to investigate the root causes of construction accidents. That knowledge could be utilised in formulating more conducive working conditions and environments at construction sites. Therefore, a study has been conducted to identify the causes of accident at construction sites. This study was started out by reviewing literature from journals, books and web pages. Then reported accidents cases kept by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia (DOSH) were examined to investigate causes of accidents. Surveys using questionnaire forms were carried out to obtain data from respondents who are mainly contractors and the rest are developers and consultants firms all around countries that are well versed with the construction safety. The finding of this study reveals that accidents are the result of many contributing factors, causes, and sub causes. Some of the critical factors are unsafe method, human element, unsafe equipment, job site conditions, management, and unique nature of the industry. The causes of accidents in Malaysia were found to be similar to that mentioned in literature review. However, some of the causes are low in frequency of occurrence. The main cause of construction accidents found are the workers’ negligence, failure of workers to obey work procedures, work at high elevation, operating equipment without safety devices, poor site management, harsh work operation, low knowledge and skill level of workers, failure to use personal protective equipments and poor workers attitude about safety.

Causes of accidents at construction sites

This study aims to determine and examine the influence of Leadership (X 1 ), Organizational Culture (X 2 ), Work Motivation (X 3 ), and Job Satisfaction (X 4 ), on the Performance of High School Heads (X 5 ) in Medan. This study also aims to determine the theoretical model of performance (fixed model) that can describe the structure of the causal relationship between the exogonus variable and the endogonus variable. This research was conducted in Medan City High School in 2017, with a total sample of 135 people. The research variable data selection uses a valid and reliable questionnaire based on the results of rational analysis (Expert Judgment) and instrument trials of 32 people from the study population. The data analysis technique used consisted of descriptive analysis, test requirements analysis, and path analysis with a significance level of α of 0.05. The results of the analysis revealed Ho was rejected, Ha was accepted. So, there is a positive and significant direct influence of Leadership, Organizational Culture, Work Motivation, and Job Satisfaction on the Performance of High School Heads in Medan City.

https://bircu-journal.com/index.php/birci/article/download/619/pdf

Influence of Leadership, Organizational Culture, Work Motivation, and Job Satisfaction of Performance Principles of Senior High School in Medan City

Statistic has shown that the number of fatality and permanent disablement cases due to accident at the Malaysia construction sites is one of the highest as compared to the other sector. Even though the number of industrial accidents decreasing but the benefits paid to the accidents victims are ever increasing. Hence, there is an urgent need to mitigate this problem. There are three basic steps that should be taken namely identifying the hazard, assessing the risk and controlling the risk to ensure a safe and conducive working condition. Implementation of effective hazards control methods may require different approaches due to changing of working environment at the construction sites. Latest technology employed at site had wiped out traditional method of construction and consequently introduce new types of hazard to the industry. Therefore, this paper is intended to identify and highlights the hazards that are most commonly found at our construction sites today. The data collection was being carried out through site investigation using a structured questionnaires forms regarding hazards in construction. The sites vary from infrastructure works, high rise building, housing development, industry building and institutional building. The study determine twelve (12) major groups of hazards in relation to works at construction sites such as power access equipment, ladder, roof work, manual handling, plant and machinery, excavation, fire and emergency, hazardous substances, noise, protective clothing and protection to public. The study was conducted on 140 construction sites and the results showed that the most common hazards for the project around the study area are associated with the protective clothing, noise and fire and emergency.

Hazards at construction sites

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/151338.pdf

The Practice of Time Management on Construction Project

Malaysia has moved fast to keep pace with the changes of times as the country aspires to achieve strong economic growth and to chart its course as a developed nation by the year 2020. The construction industry is one of the important sectors for nations to develop our country's economy and thus able to improve our competitiveness. However, in line with the positive growth of the economy, the construction sector also contributes to the high accident fatality rate. Construction workers are often exposed to various inherent risks associated with working conditions on construction sites. Although various approaches have been implemented in order to prevent accidents, the statistic indicates further improvement need to be taken fast. The objective of the study is to analyse the statistics and causes of fatal accidents at construction sites in Malaysia. The study focuses on 129 fatal construction accident cases based on database and document kept by the Malaysian authority, such as Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and Social Security Organisation (SOCSO). The collected data were analyzed using frequency analysis and content analysis. The analysis shows that the number of fatal accidents is increasing every year. In the last five years, statistic from SOCSO and DOSH has shown an increasing number of fatal accident cases for about 231.9% and 125.8% respectively. The top three causes of fatal construction accidents are unsafe methods, the unique nature of industry and job site conditions. Whereas, the leading sub-causes are work at high elevation, incorrect or no work procedure and failure of structure.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/220/1/012044/pdf

Abdul Hamid

Papers

Causes of accidents at construction sites

Influence of Leadership, Organizational Culture, Work Motivation, and Job Satisfaction of Performance Principles of Senior High School in Medan City

Hazards at construction sites

The Practice of Time Management on Construction Project

Causes of fatal construction accidents in Malaysia