Corporate Universities in Building Construction Companies: Evidence from the U.S.

Managing a company’s knowledge assets and creating sustainable learning environments are more important than ever in managing change, surviving, competing, and thriving in a knowledge economy. A corporate university (CU), “a unique form of educational arrangement to accomplish an organization’s goals by building the intellectual capital of its employees,” is one of the tools that companies use to overcome these challenges. Although there have been some attempts to establish and operate CUs in some construction companies, the CU concept has rarely been investigated in academic research associated with the construction industry. This paper examines the current situation of CUs in American building construction companies. To assess the current situation, an Internet search was conducted to visit and analyze the content of the websites of building construction companies listed in Engineering News-Record (ENR)’s Top 400 Contractors list. The results show that 102 out of the largest 323 building construction companies in the U.S. offer in-house education/training activities, 40 of which describe themselves as CUs. There is a significant drop in the number of companies with in-house education/training activities from the first 100 to the last 100 companies. In addition, the results provide valuable insights into some of the key building blocks of CUs, namely content/course offerings, programs, target audience, delivery methods, collaboration, outsourcing, and accreditation.