Knowledge: Capture and transfer in professional service firms: A study of architectural practice in Singapore

Architectural Practices exist in a professional-service, project-based environment where every product or service is supplied against a bespoke design. Architectural Practices, therefore, require an approach to its management which addresses the unique, novel and transient nature of its work; that invariably would be guided by the norms and controls of its professional institution. In this paper, we describe our understanding of knowledge management policies in Architectural firms from a Human Resource Management perspective. We hypothesize that communicative practices are the dominant means of knowledge capture and transfer in these Professional Service Organizations. The individual member's participation, social structures and interactions, therefore, play a major role in the operational success of any strategy for knowledge capture and transfer. The paper describes a range of social mechanisms managers should pay attention to, and suggests that spatial design plays an important role in enabling and encouraging the level of communication required for knowledge sharing