Organizational Culture and Knowledge Management in ERP Implementation: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems offer great promise to organizations wanting to gain competitive advantage by integrating the many elements that comprise business practice. ERP implementation is expensive and poses a big challenge for organizations because of its complexity. Knowledge management approach had been suggested to ensure effective ERP implementation. Four sets of “knowledge processes” were given in the knowledge management framework: (1) creation (2) storage/retrieval (3) transfer, and (4) usage/application. Descriptive studies suggested a knowledge-friendly organizational culture as a major catalyst for the knowledge processes. This research examines the relationship between organizational culture and the four sets of “knowledge processes” in the ERP implementation context. Accordingly, this paper empirically tests the relationships among organizational culture, knowledge creation, storage, transfer and application in the context of ERP implementation. The empirical inputs were obtained through a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was published using WebSurveyor Corporation's WebSurveyor software. The survey included responses from ERP project managers, project team members, IT professionals, CIOs, users, top management, vendors, and consultants associated with companies which had implemented the ERP systems. One-hundred and eighty two respondents from thirty-six different organizations participated in the survey. The survey results have shown that organizational culture influences the four sets of knowledge processes in the ERP implementation context. The implications for theory and practice are given.