The Need for Knowledge Personalisation and Codification Culture in Nigeria’s FM Industry

The facility management industry is one of the industries in the world where knowledge is important in service delivery more than the use of resources. It is imperative because the issues and challenges on critical and soft facilities in workplaces and homes emerge, in most cases, from the manner which the users deployed the facilities. To solve the dynamic problems, companies and practitioners need to imbibe knowledge personalisation and codification culture.   

From Lagos, in the West region, to Zaria, in the North region, facilities management is being taught at two universities out of over 100 universities in the country. At the University of Lagos, practitioners who enrolled in Master of Facilities Management are expected to have Estate Management or Architecture, Building, Quantity surveying, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgical and Material Engineering and other related backgrounds.  With the 74 courses and first degree certificate in Building, Quantity Survey, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Estate Management, Urban and Regional Planning, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria is equipping the practitioners the needed knowledge.

Credit: LinkedIn, Infoprations Analysis, 2018

Apart from the practitioners who sought advanced knowledge in facilities management at the University of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University, Infoprations’ check reveals that the industry has a significant number of practitioners with the first degree and Higher National Diploma in the courses of study itemised for admission requirement by the two universities. Having acquired the basic knowledge from the schools, practitioners face challenge of applying the static basic knowledge to dynamic issues or problems on hard and soft facilities.

This is sufficient enough for the companies and practitioners to embrace knowledge personalisation and codification. By personalising knowledge through sharing mechanism at the individual level, a company would not lose both tacit and explicit knowledge useful for solving critical problems in the future when the employee who has the knowledge is no more working with the company. Knowledge codification becomes necessary when the company is offering advisory services or solutions. Tacit knowledge needs to be documented. The format could be print or electronic.

Ernst and Young, PwC, KPMG among other reputable consulting companies are making headway and offering tailored solutions to their clients because they are not toying with knowledge personalisation and codification.

Companies and practitioners in Nigeria and other countries need to embrace the culture because the analysis only reveals 33.4% connection between the FM knowledge users and existing knowledge indicators in the industry. Analysis suggests that users are more than the existing knowledge acquisition and sharing indicators.