Assessment of Effective Utilization of KM Technologies as a Function of Organizational Culture

Abstract

Companies are adopting more technologies than ever to maximize the benefit of Knowledge Management (KM). However, recent global analyses of such investments highlight the fact that not all of them are necessarily successful. Too much emphasis on technology without incorporating organizational culture can easily result in failed implementation of KM technology. The key factors for the higher return on the KM technology are the choosing the right technologies for given organizational culture and the effective utilization of those technologies. The purpose of this research is to explore possible relationships between the KM technology types and organizational culture orientations regarding effective utilization of KM technology. Data used to test hypotheses derived for this research were obtained from 294 responders from the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) survey instruments and 143 responders from the Knowledge Management Technology Profile (KMTP) survey instruments representing 29 separate organizations. The OCP provides a profile of an organization's culture orientation while the KMTP provides a profile of the organization's effective utilization of KM technologies. The results of this research suggest that organizations utilizing collaborative technologies effectively identified people-oriented culture orientation. On the other hand, effective utilization of distributive technologies does not show any relationship with organizational culture orientation.