Explaining the Mediating Role of Knowledge Management between Organisation’s Characteristics and Employee’s Performance: A Public Sector Perspective

Adnan A S Al-Ali,Jarrah F Al-Mansour

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v15n12p132

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the mediating role of knowledge management between organizational culture, structure, strategy, and employee and organisational performance. There is a significant research work on Knowledge Management (KM) globally; however, there is a dearth of research in contextualizing the concept in the Middle East. Therefore, adopting a multiple case-based approach, this paper conducted 478 surveys in five public organizations in Kuwait. The results suggested that KM could mediate the impact of organizational strategy and HRD structure. Surprisingly, organizational culture emerged as the only construct that remained uninfluenced by knowledge management practices. This research makes a vital contribution to the under-researched knowledge management concept in the region and the relevant cognitive understanding of social practice in relation to the HRD. It, therefore, proposes an integrative framework which specifies the conceptual linkages between organization characteristics and potential performance.

Highlights

Knowledge is seen as one of the biggest assets for any discipline for centuries, the term Knowledge Management (KM) is a contemprary phenomenon, which was coined in the 21st century
The measurement model was evaluated by assessing the convergent validity, which is measured by factor loading the average variance extracted (AVE), and the composite reliability (CR) result. reports the item loadings, AVE, CR, and R-Squared
Our research provides an alternative approach to Knowledge Management practice by reflecting on the significance of creating a knowledge-friendly atmosphere that aligns organizational settings and HRD practices with relevant performance

Summary

Introduction

Knowledge is seen as one of the biggest assets for any discipline for centuries, the term Knowledge Management (KM) is a contemprary phenomenon, which was coined in the 21st century. It gained popularity in the lastest 10-15 years and has been researched as a driving force for business success. KM broadly means the practice of sharing, using, and managing knowledge and information in an organization. The key organizational and managerial practices have undergone a sea change and attention to the core characteristics of any organization have become a prerequisite for its sustainability, success, and improvement. It is a core mean that enables employees to use organizational resources (Darroch, 2005), and it is understood as a process to share knowledge with social actors that allows organisations to compete (von Krough, 1998). It reflects a form of context, and defines who participates and how in the overall KM process (Nonaka et al, 2000)

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