Knowledge management supportive human resource environment

Journal of the Academy of Business and Economics, Jan, 2004 by Yong S. Choi

ABSTRACT

The successful implementation of knowledge management (KM) can provide the capability to understand the market, accurately assess the customers' needs, and turn them into products and services by integrating organizational resources. Since organization's knowledge is personal, building of organizational knowledge is unthinkable without employees. This study has two objectives. One is to identify differences between the perceived importance (organizations without KM) and the actual importance (organizations with KM) attributes for successful KM implementation. The other is to develop and empirically examine the knowledge supportive human resource (HR) factors affecting the success of KM From the results of statistical analysis, important generalizations are suggested Attributes with lower degree of perceived importance were implemented less frequently and Top Management Support is a critical factor for KM success.

1. INTRODUCTION

Knowledge Management (KM) includes the process of discovery, creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge. For successful implementation of KM program, executives and managers need to understand the various organizational aspects including organizational structure, culture, human resource, and technology. Especially, human resource became one of the critical factors for effective KM. Organizational knowledge must be created based on each employee's knowledge. That is, organizational knowledge is personal and building of organizational knowledge is unthinkable without employees (Lesser, et. al.,. 2001). As numerous organizational studies have recommended, KM supportive human resource (HR) environment has been a key to success factor for KM program. However, little empirical research has been conducted on this issue. Moreover, there has been no investigation as to how organizations that have not been engaged in KM perceive success factors of KM differently than organizations that have implemented KM. Thus, there are two objectives of this study. First is to identify differences between the perceived importance (organizations without KM) and the actual importance (organizations with KM) attributes for successful KM implementation. The second objective is to develop and empirically examine the HR factors affecting the success of KM.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Studies from various disciplines have identified several key HR variables for the success of KM The findings by leading KM researchers are major sources that can be used to identify the critical success factors of KM. Numerous studies point out the importance of training in KM. Training should provide employees and managers the skills and information to fulfill their responsibilities. One of the reasons for the failure in effective work behaviors would be insufficient training to support KM principles. Well-engineered training initiatives help to retain knowledge within the organization. (Acton and Golden, 2003; Cohen and Backer, 1999).

Employee involvement describes how all employees can contribute effectively to meeting the organization's objectives. Employee involvement is one of key factors in successful KM implementation because the nature of knowledge creation and sharing is unthinkable without employee involvement. (Bartlett, et. al., 2002).

The transformation to a knowledge-based organization requires peer-to-peer collaboration. That is, teamwork is an essential source of the knowledge generation process. Creating teams allows organizations to apply diverse skills and experiences towards its processes and problem-solving An organization's members must work together and build on each other's ideas and strengths. Anyone who has knowledge and interest in a problem should be included on the team (Greengard, 1998).

Employee empowerment is also a key factor for KM success because true empowerment can give the employees a sense of ownership in the overall aim of the organizational KM system. Employers can value their employees' expertise through empowerment (Martinez, 1998). Further, employers can tape into employees' knowledge and help them communicate their knowledge by creating ways to capture, organize, and share knowledge.

For successful KM project, the visible leadership and commitment of top management must be sustained throughout a KM effort because effective knowledge creation is not possible unless leaders empower employees and show a strong commitment to the organization. That is, top management must be willing to communicate with employees to make knowledge realistic and coordinate KM implementation process (Dess and Picken, 2000). To exert their leadership and commitment in implementing a KM project: (1) they must have sufficient knowledge; (2) they must have realistic expectation of KM results; (3) they must communicate with employees; and (4) they must have the ability to coordinate the different interests of functional units involved in the KM implementation process.

3. RESEARCH DESIGN

The sampling frame for this research consisted of the U.S. firms listed in the Gallup Organization's client database. A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed. The number of returned questionnaires was 220. Among the returned questionnaires, three responses were unusable because too many values were missing. Thus 217 responses were used for the data analysis.