Abstract
Background: State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in South Africa face a serious challenge of knowledge loss caused largely by resignations, the ageing workforce and a lack of knowledge management (KM) practices. Objective: This article explores KM practices in the South African SOEs to mitigate the risks inherent in tacit knowledge loss. Methods: The study adopted a mixed methods research strategy using an exploratory sequential design to identify KM practices and their effectiveness in addressing the issue of tacit knowledge loss. The qualitative data was collected through the interviews and document analysis of 2018 annual reports in nine SOEs across five market sectors. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 585 respondents, with a 25% response rate (145) for quantitative data in three SOEs. Results: The results revealed that the majority of the SOEs lacked KM practices in their structures. The lack of KM practices implies that the SOEs are lagging behind in knowledge protective capacities to mitigate the risks inherent in the organisational tacit knowledge loss. With many South African SOEs, facing all these sorts of knowledge loss risks and a lack of KM practices to mitigate them, achieving the objectives of a developmental state remains a far-fetched idea. Conclusion: The absence of KM practices negatively affected knowledge transfer and retention in most of the SOEs. A lack of KM practices will negatively affect their performance and their sustainability to deliver on their developmental mandate. Investment in KM practices will assist SOEs to mitigate the risks associated with loss of organisational tacit knowledge.
Highlights
Introduction and backgroundIn the knowledge-based economy, organisational knowledge assets are the cornerstone and sources of superior performance, innovation and sustainability
The results revealed that the majority of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) lacked knowledge management (KM) practices in their structures
The lack of KM practices implies that the SOEs are lagging behind in knowledge protective capacities to mitigate the risks inherent in the organisational tacit knowledge loss
Summary
Introduction and backgroundIn the knowledge-based economy, organisational knowledge assets are the cornerstone and sources of superior performance, innovation and sustainability. Stateowned enterprises (SOEs) are the business entities owned by the government to meet the socioeconomic objectives or mandates of their home countries They are economic transformation and job creation agents at the heart of economic and innovation development in many countries (Saxen & Das 2021). In their own right, SOEs are knowledge-creating and knowledge-based organisations which play an important role in the knowledge economy (Benassi & Landoni 2019). State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in South Africa face a serious challenge of knowledge loss caused largely by resignations, the ageing workforce and a lack of knowledge management (KM) practices
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