Success factors for cultivating situated learning in projects

Purpose The implementation of situated learning (SL) in project-based settings is hindered by a lack of empirical research on its success factors (SFs). This paper addresses this gap by investigating the SFs for cultivating SL in construction projects, with the aim of providing insights into effective implementation strategies. Design/methodology/approach Purposive sampling method was utilized to obtain a sample size of 203 respondents and data solicited through a structured questionnaire survey. The data set was analyzed using a four-level analytical protocol. These include – pretesting the data set, mean score ranking, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE). Findings Fuzzy synthetic evaluation revealed that SFs at the team level had the highest criticality index (4.292), followed by organizational-level (4.202) and individual-level factors (4.193), all exceeding the 3.50 threshold. Although individual-level factors explained the greatest variance (22.587%), team dynamics were perceived as most decisive for SL outcomes. Mean ranking identified participatory decision-making (M = 4.47), ease of information flow (M = 4.45), team composition (M = 4.44), team leadership (M = 4.43) and behavioral conditioning (M = 4.35) as the top five critical SFs. The results indicate that team-level factors constitute the primary mechanism for cultivating SL, supported by organizational enablers and individual capacities. Originality/value This study provides the first empirical validation of SFs for cultivating situated learning in projects, addressing a gap in literature dominated by cognitive knowledge management models.