COMMUNICATING KNOWLEDGE IN POSTDISASTER RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN INDONESIA

Indonesia is considered to be a country that is particularly vulnerable to disasters. Three major earthquakes in the last two decades in Indonesia (the 2004 Aceh earthquake, the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake and the 2009 West Sumatra earthquake) have produced loss to human life and also damage to constructed facilities such as houses, buildings and infrastructures. Reconstruction is a phase in disaster management cycle which plays important role in mitigating risks of future disasters. A decent quality of reconstructed facilities in post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) will reduce risk towards the future disasters, therefore it may reduce loss and damage if the disasters had occurred. Project management of PDR projects. This paper seeks to investigate the role of knowledge communication in PDR projects in Indonesia and investigates knowledge communication implementation in the projects. Mixed method research was adopted in the research methodology that consists of 143 usable questionnaire and 33 interviews. The research revealed that the five most frequently used knowledge communication methods at the construction stage of PDR projects are reports, face-to-face interaction, telephone, project review and meetings. Results of the research also show five significant roles for knowledge communication are ‘to improve quality of work', ‘to spread best practice', ‘to reduce rework, ‘to transfer information for problem solving', and ‘to improve performance and productivity'.