Knowledge-intensive Organizations Research Articles

Knowledge management and innovation performance in knowledge intensive organisations - the role of HR practices

Knowledge management and innovation performance in knowledge intensive organisations - the role of HR practices

Knowledge management and innovation performance in knowledge intensive organisations - the role of HR practices

Knowledge intensive organisations survive and sustain through effective knowledge management practices. The present study attempts to understand the interplay of knowledge management, human resource practices and innovation performance in knowledge-intensive organisations. In-depth interviews were carried out with five subject matter experts using semi-structured interview schedule for finalising the conceptual model. The model was empirically tested using a questionnaire on a sample of 152 respondents and the results are discussed. Organisation memory was found to be the most significant predictor of innovation performance followed by knowledge acquisition and knowledge integration. Separate parallel mediation analysis was carried out to see the influence of each KM practice on innovation performance via the four HR practices. Human resource acquisition was found to be the only HR practice that mediates the relationship between each of the KM practices and innovation performance.

Specific influence of knowledge intensive and capital intensive organizations on collaborative climate and knowledge sharing in SMEs

In this paper, the authors discuss knowledge management, with a focus on knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing is dependent on trust and cooperation, which are elements of organizational culture. One specific aspect of organizational culture is of particular interest for knowledge sharing. This aspect consists of values, beliefs and atmosphere that characterize common mental space accepted by knowledge workers which affect behavior and readiness to share knowledge. This aspect of organizational culture is called collaborative climate and can be described as the 'permeability' of the human infrastructure for knowledge sharing. Collaborative climate in an organization can be considered as an environment that provides support to knowledge workers to create new knowledge that will be translated into a value, which will become competitive advantage of an organization. A questionnaire for assessing two dimensions of the collaborative climate: Organizational Culture and Employee Attitude was used as an instrument in this research. The main research questions in this paper are: 1) Is there a statistically significant difference between attitudes towards collaborative climate of managers and employees? 2) Is there a statistically significant difference between attitudes towards collaborative climate in capital intensive and knowledge intensive organizations? Research hypotheses emerged from the main research questions. The survey was conducted in order to answer research questions. Data collection was carried out in 2016 throughout the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The sample in this research consisted of 114 managers from 78 randomly selected SMEs from the database of the National Agency for Regional Development. Afterwards, 647 employees were surveyed from those same companies, and in total 761 valid responses were collected. Principal component analysis was applied to the data. In order to check for statistically significant differences, factor scores were tested using Leven’s homogeneity test of variance and t-test. Data analysis indicated the existence of statistically significant differences between employee and managers attitudes in their assessment of collaborative climate in capital intensive and knowledge intensive organizations.

Investigate the Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivational Factors of Knowledge Transfer in the Hospitals

The value of services in knowledge-intensive organizations like the hospitals is created by the tacit knowledge of the health staff. The weak knowledge transfer activities among the health staff effects on the performance level of the health care services. Hospitals are dependent on continuously learning from mistakes and to make improvements and then to transfer this newly acquired knowledge between units and workers in the organization. It is important to enhance the knowledge transfer behaviors of knowledge source and recipients in the hospitals. This study aims to investigate the extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors that would be adopted to improve the knowledge transfer processes among the health staff. The data of this study were collected from 475 doctor and nurses that work in three Jordanian hospitals; Albashir Hospital, Jordan University Hospital and Al-Issra Hospital. The collected data were analyzed using many tests such as validity, reliability, demographic and descriptive analysis. The significant results show that there are many extrinsic motivational factors would be adopted to improve the knowledge transfer by the knowledge source and recipients such as reward, ideal salaries, promotions, satisfaction of work position, stability of labor and reputation feedback. On the other hand, there are many intrinsic motivational factors that would be applied to enhance the knowledge transfer such as arduous relationship, altruism, shared understanding, champions and enjoyment to help others. This study helps the hospitals to identify the motivational factors that would be adopted to improve the knowledge transfer processes in order to enhance the quality of health care services.

Impact of human resources management practices on workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour

Knowledge can be a strategic asset for organisations, particularly for knowledge-intensive organisations. Drawing from social exchange theory (SET), this study examines the direct relationship between human resources management (HRM) practices and workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour (WKHB). This study analyse data obtained from 270 organisational employees in the telecommunication and information technology sector in Jordan using a quantitative approach and applying partial least squares structural equation modelling with bootstrap resampling. The findings suggest that HRM practices reduce knowledge-hiding behaviour in terms of recognition, fair rewards, competence development, and information-sharing practices. In addition, this study found that employee education is positively related to workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour: higher-educated employees hide information more than their counterparts. These findings offer a better understanding of the relationship between HRM practices and workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour in a developing country context.

Impact of human resources management practices on workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour

Knowledge can be a strategic asset for organisations, particularly for knowledge-intensive organisations. Drawing from social exchange theory (SET), this study examines the direct relationship between human resources management (HRM) practices and workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour (WKHB). This study analyse data obtained from 270 organisational employees in the telecommunication and information technology sector in Jordan using a quantitative approach and applying partial least squares structural equation modelling with bootstrap resampling. The findings suggest that HRM practices reduce knowledge-hiding behaviour in terms of recognition, fair rewards, competence development, and information-sharing practices. In addition, this study found that employee education is positively related to workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour: higher-educated employees hide information more than their counterparts. These findings offer a better understanding of the relationship between HRM practices and workplace knowledge-hiding behaviour in a developing country context.

The influence of information technology (IT) on organization leadership and performance

Leadership of modern organizations depend upon ever greater levels of information technology (IT) now, such as big data and management & data analytics, a trend which shows no sign of abating now. However, not all modern organizations have benefited from such IT investments, resulting in mixed perceptions on the value of IT. Organizations must be knowledgeable in order to properly utilize IT tools and be able to apply that knowledge to create unique competencies in order to gain sustained advantage from IT investments. Information technology in the modern organizations has been proposed as the mechanism to accomplish the leadership in the concerned industries. Existing empirical research demonstrates that IT may indeed act as a mediator for the effect of leadership on modern organizational outcomes. Yet, this study is not consistent in the conceptualizations of the relationships involved, nor in their definitions and measurement of IT investment spending. Thus, they chase numerous creative and innovative procedures and approaches while adding a substantial role of informational technology in the administration of such practice. This study aims to address these concerns in a organization setting by using structural equation modelling (SEM) to compare the effectiveness of descriptive and normative measures of IT as mediating variables in knowledge-intensive organizations. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Analysis of Knowledge Sharing Barriers in Sri Lankan Software Companies

Knowledge sharing is a vital factor for the success of organizations, mainly for the knowledge-intensive organizations such as software companies. This study aims to investigate the status of the knowledge sharing attitude and the existing knowledge sharing barriers in Sri Lankan software companies. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is applied as the basis of this study and assessed ten hypothesized associations among dependent variable; attitude for knowledge sharing (AT); and independent variables; motivation and willingness (MW), trust among individuals (TR), time (T), power relationship (PR), expected reciprocity (ER), communication skills (CS), organizational culture and structure (OS), leadership (LD), reward systems (RS), and technological infrastructure (TI). Measurement model analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The seven factors, which have been identified to have a potentially high significance with knowledge sharing attitude were then considered as the barrier factors, which indicate a high possibility to influence a negative impact on the knowledge-sharing attitude. Meanwhile, acquisition growth was identified to have the highest knowledge-sharing attitude, and the network growth was identified to have the least favourable attitude for knowledge sharing. Findings provide convincing evidence of lack of time, improper organizational structures, PR, language and ER as the main barriers associated with knowledge sharing in software companies. The study suggests some solutions to overcome these barriers and directions for future researchers to conduct their studies.

Linking knowledge management practices to organizational performance using the balanced scorecard approach

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop a decomposed model to inspect the effect of knowledge management practices (knowledge sharing culture [KSC], knowledge-based human resource management [KHRM], strategy and leadership [S&L], information and communication technology [ICT] on organizational performance [OP]) by using the four balanced scorecard outcomes (BSC) (learning and growth [L&G], internal process [IP] perspective, customer satisfaction [CS] perspective and financial performance [FP]).Design/methodology/approachThe research methodology included development of a research model based on comprehensive literature review followed by survey of knowledge-intensive organizations. A sample of 277 employees was obtained and structured equation modeling analysis using SPSS AMOS was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe study shows that KSC and KHRM have a highly significant effect on all the four aspects of OP; S&L positively and significantly affects only L&G and IP but does not have any significant effect on the other two, i.e. CS and FP, while ICT practices did not affect any of the measures significantly.Research limitations/implicationsThe data are limited to 277 middle and senior level managers of Indian firms, which may be a limiting factor for generalizability.Originality/valueThe proposed model uncovers the dynamics of individual relationships between KM practices and measures of performance (proposed by BSC) in comparison to existing models which have mainly focused on the overall effect.

Employee Ideation on Internal Social Media: Addressing Uncertainty through Dialogue Strategies

ABSTRACTThis article examines employee ideation on internal social media, and how employees through dialogue strategies address uncertainty, a condition assumed inherent in ideation. The study explored online employee communication and interaction during 60 ideation sessions, including 2,420 suggested ideas, 6,558 comments, and 3,017 likes since the implementation in 2011 in a large, knowledge-intensive Danish organization. One ideation session counting 70 ideas, including 263 comments and 340 likes, was selected for an in-depth analysis of employee communication when generating ideas on internal social media. The study found that employees ideate mostly through three dialogue strategies: anticipating objections, asking directional questions, and opening up to other viewpoints. With these strategies, employees addressed uncertainty in mitigating interactions imagined to be face-threatening. Moreover, the present research suggests that uncertainty and dialogue strategies are considered resources for online employee ideation. Uncertainty may offer the opportunity for open, reflective, and stimulating dialogues, and the dialogue strategies may enhance online ideation. It is not until after an idea starts to develop through the multi-vocal dialogues that opportunities for innovation may emerge. In that sense, online employee communication about ideas is considered of strategic significance to one of the organization’s goals of being an innovation leader.

The knowledge and process continuum

The aim of the paper is to propose the concept of the Knowledge and Process Continuum, which corresponds to the changing role of Business Process Management (BPM) in Knowledge Intensive Organizations in the Knowledge Economy. The paper is conceptual in nature and is grounded in the theories of Knowledge Management (KM) and BPM. The systematic literature review method was used in order to employ a manual search of peer‐reviewed papers available in the Springer and ProQuest databases. Seventeen articles were chosen for in‐depth analysis, which shows the research gap with respect to the integrated application of KM and BPM. The article is an inspiring contribution to the theoretical reflection on the current state and further evolution of BPM in the Knowledge Economy and its inseparable connection with KM. The proposed conceptual framework may facilitate the management of Knowledge Intensive Organizations to effectively capitalize on the relationship between knowledge and business processes of different nature.

Somatic and cultural knowledge: drivers of a habitus-driven model of tacit knowledge acquisition

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and explain the role of individual learning and development in acquiring tacit knowledge in the context of the inexorable and intense continuous change (technological and otherwise) that characterizes our society today, and also to investigate the software (SW) sector, which is at the core of contemporary continuous change and is a paradigm of effective and intrinsic knowledge sharing (KS). This makes the SW sector unique and different from others where KS is so hard to implement.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed an inductive qualitative approach based on a multi-case study approach, composed of three successful SW companies in China. These companies are representative of the fabric of the sector, namely a small- and medium-sized enterprise, a large private company and a large state-owned enterprise. The fieldwork included 44 participants who were interviewed using a semi-structured script. The interview data were coded and interpreted following the Straussian grounded theory pattern of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The process of interviewing was stopped when theoretical saturation was achieved after a careful process of theoretical sampling.FindingsThe findings of this research suggest that individual learning and development are deemed to be the fundamental feature for professional success and survival in the continuously changing environment of the SW industry today. However, individual learning was described by the participants as much more than a mere individual process. It involves a collective and participatory effort within the organization and the sector as a whole, and a KS process that transcends organizational, cultural and national borders. Individuals in particular are mostly motivated by the pressing need to face and adapt to the dynamic and changeable environments of today’s digital society that is led by the sector. Software practitioners are continuously in need of learning, refreshing and accumulating tacit knowledge, partly because it is required by their companies, but also due to a sound awareness of continuous technical and technological changes that seem only to increase with the advances of information technology. This led to a clear theoretical understanding that the continuous change that faces the sector has led to individual acquisition of culture and somatic knowledge that in turn lay the foundation for not only the awareness of the need for continuous individual professional development but also for the creation of habitus related to KS and continuous learning.Originality/valueThe study reported in this paper shows that there is a theoretical link between the existence of conducive organizational and sector-wide somatic and cultural knowledge, and the success of KS practices that lead to individual learning and development. Therefore, the theory proposed suggests that somatic and cultural knowledge are crucial drivers for the creation of habitus of individual tacit knowledge acquisition. The paper further proposes a habitus-driven individual development (HDID) Theoretical Model that can be of use to both academics and practitioners interested in fostering and developing processes of KS and individual development in knowledge-intensive organizations.

How Do Mobility Direction and Human Assets of Mobile Engineers Affect Joint Knowledge Creation after M&As?

We focused on mobile engineers, a distinctive employee group that may have unique reactions to mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Mobile engineers, employees that move from one firm to another, were previously recognized as an undesirable loss by most knowledge-intensive organizations. However, in this study, we show that they may return to their former organizations as effective knowledge creators when their previous and new organizations unite through M&As. We specifically investigated how their mobility direction, relational assets, and intellectual assets affect the amount of knowledge that is jointly created through inter-personal collaborations following the M&A. Using the data of 410 mobile engineers in high-technology M&As during 2000–2004 in the United States, we found that the mobility direction from acquiring firms to targets prior to M&A has a positive impact on joint knowledge creation. We also found that such mobility direction positively moderates the relationship between human assets of mobile engineers and their joint knowledge creation.

Multiple Team Membership and Individual Job Performance: A Social Network Perspective

Employees in knowledge-intensive organizations are often involved in more than one team at the same time. This study employs a social capital perspective to propose that an employee’s multiple team...

Managing performance through employee attributes: implications for employee engagement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the connection between performance management and employee engagement. More specifically, the authors address shortcomings in prior literature where employee performance has been controlled narrowly as cognitive task accomplishment. Accumulating evidence shows, however, that such performance-mediating factors as employee engagement constitute critical antecedents of employee and organizational performance. They can most effectively be influenced by attending sensitively to employees’ individual differences, which are ultimately driven by motifs and dispositions. Design/methodology/approach The study takes a quantitative approach to exploring predictors of employee engagement. The analysis is based on a sample of 503 online survey respondents from knowledge-intensive organizations. Findings The results indicate that employee engagement is driven more by employees’ inherent attributes than environmental factors. The analysis refuted the connection between engagement and social orientation, self-regulation and conscientiousness. Instead, the factors associating with employee engagement were analytical thinking, extroversion, systems thinking, assertiveness and leadership. Practical implications In this paper, the authors put forth a novel conceptual model of performance management, introducing new and evidence-based foci for effective people management that expand task performance to contextual performance and supplement quantifying approaches to performance control with the qualifying methodology. Originality/value Departing from the previously dominating frameworks of performance management that focused on task performance, this work extends to contextual performance and considers also employees’ psychological traits.

Managers beyond borders: side-by-side management in mutual funds and pension funds

Firms of collective investment industries, such as mutual and pension funds, are knowledge-intensive organizations that share managers between their multi-businesses to transfer the know-how of their employees and take advantage of the firm-specific human capital. This paper analyses the determinants and consequences of the simultaneous management (also called side-by-side or SBS management) of mutual and pension funds. In a sample of UK domestic equity mutual and pension funds, we find that managers are more likely to become SBS managers whether they belong to larger firms, have prior experience handling multiple funds, possess higher tenure, are female, and run smaller funds. Furthermore, SBS managers outperform their peers, showing the value of sharing human resources among diversified firms. Our results also show that holding similar portfolios between the funds of a manager may facilitate the multi-fund management. Top performers (SBS and non-SBS) present higher portfolio similarities than bottom performers, and higher fund similarities allow top managers to attract flows between their funds. However, top non-SBS managers erode performance due to higher portfolio similarities.

Exploring KM practices in Malaysian R&D firms

Purpose The purpose of this research is to explore how current implementation of KM practices, KM processes and KM-centred strategies among Malaysian R&D firms contribute to improving their knowledge quality. In addition, the KM practices investigated are supported by ways of how the R&D firms are motivated to share knowledge and what are the constraints inhibiting such sharing. Design/methodology/approach A total of 320 questionnaires were disseminated to Malaysian R&D firms and the response rate was 47 per cent. Descriptive analysis such as percentage, mean values and indexes were used to analyse the data. Findings Overall, the findings reflect the nature of R&D firms as knowledge-intensive organisations. KM practices show that there is a very high tendency of implementation of knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation activities. In all, 90 per cent of more firms have implemented the three KM processes with constructing new knowledge appears to be the most implemented process. Knowledge-centred culture scores the highest overall mean, followed by leadership and HR practices. Practical implications This study provides an identification of KM practices that serves as a starting point for R&D managers to determine the gaps and appropriate actions to collectively achieve the desired R&D results and national innovation. Originality/value This study serves as a careful examination in exploring the extent to which KM practices, KM processes and KM-centred strategies are implemented in improving the knowledge quality in the Malaysian R&D firms. It helps R&D firms to frame their KM activities to drive the capability of creating and retaining a greater value onto their core business competencies.

Bilgi Yoğun Örgütler Öznesinde Örgütsel Güç ve Örgüt İçi Koalisyon Kavramları

Knowledge is one of the main components of new economic structure that is called as knowledge era and it is one of the hot topics of social sciences. Knowledge intensive organizations, which have showed up naturally as a result of this era and which have been using knowledge both as an input and as an output, have revealed a different organizational structure than the past eras. Overcoming the uncertainties is the essence of organizational survival and it is one of the main issues emphasized in the organizational researches.This is also valid for the knowledge intensive organizations. According to ‘Strategic Contingency’ approach which is uttered by Hickson et al. (1971), the organizational units which play a critical role in overcoming uncertainties can use organizational power. Within the scope of knowledge intensive organizations, the individuals/groups/units that play critical and irreplaceable roles while overcoming uncertainties can be seen as power users. Moreover, these components of an organization which have heterogenic structure can live symbiotically and one of them can play the role of the dominant one in this coalition. In this paper, some theoretical propositions are tried to be inferred within the concepts mentioned above. The aim of the paper is to reveal theoretical assumptions concerning knowledge intensive organizations and to play a leading role for the studies on these issues.

COMPARING MANAGERIAL LEADERSHIP IN KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE CONTEXT: HOW LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND STYLES DIFFERS AMONG ORGANIZATIONAL LEVELS?

In today's globalized world, being innovative has become a top priority for many organizations. The knowledge-oriented sectors have started to gain much power and attention for the competing economies. Such developments give rise to new form of organizations named as “knowledge intensive firms (KIFs)” along with a new type of employee called as “knowledge worker.” Such workers use their brain power and think for a living unlike manual workers whose work is mostly based on physical tasks. Knowledge workers are generally work in knowledge intensive firms and use their theoretical and analytical skills to find creative solutions to complex problems and dealing with uncertainty of knowledge creation through new product or service development. İn fact, the new knowledge and the products they create is not easy to replicate both inside and outside of organization. These workers are the most valuable assets of knowledge intensive organizations. Being expert and skillful gives knowledge workers the autonomy and control power on their job. Traditional approaches and leadership styles of managers are questioned and not welcomed in such settings. Therefore, the changing focus and the nature of these contemporary organizations unearthed new leadership styles and approaches for the executive officers. Interviews with managers and knowledge workers revealed that different managerial skills and leadership styles are favored depending on the organizational levels of managers doing leadership in knowledge intensive setting.

Knowledge management in knowledge-intensive organisations: Understanding its benefits, processes, infrastructure and barriers

Background: Knowledge management aims to improve organisational performance and it marks the beginning of organisational transformation. Most knowledge-intensive organisations engage and practise knowledge management without a full understanding of its benefits. A knowledge-intensive organisation is an organisation whose services and operations are heavily reliant on professional knowledge. The study, therefore, provides a solid understanding of knowledge management benefits, processes, infrastructure and barriers in knowledge-intensive organisations.Objectives: To understand knowledge management, its benefits, processes, infrastructure and barriers in knowledge-intensive organisations. The research objectives extend our understanding of knowledge management in organisations, identify and describe knowledge management benefits. Identification of the most important knowledge management process and associated infrastructure are among other objectives.Method: A survey was used to solve the problem. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from 112 participants from knowledge-intensive firms in Namibia. The quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel 2013 spreadsheet package.Results: The study has revealed that the prime benefit of knowledge management in knowledge-intensive organisations is to allow improved knowledge flow, thereby enhancing the capability of the organisation to manage change with more than 50% representation of the participants. In addition to that, the study also found that knowledge sharing is the most important knowledge management process, among other processes such as knowledge creation, knowledge capture and knowledge reuse. All the participants (100%) concurred that a flat organisational structure supports knowledge sharing. The research findings have further discovered that the biggest barrier to effective knowledge management is the lack of budget to support knowledge management efforts. This was represented by 67.9% of the participants. Lack of executive support and lack of time were also among the great barriers with 57.1% and 52.7%, respectively.Conclusion: Knowledge management allows improved knowledge flow in knowledge-intensive organisations. We can, therefore, conclude that the participants believed that knowledge sharing is more important than creation, capturing, transferring and reuse. It is, therefore, important to underscore that knowledge sharing should be taken as a priority if organisations are to remain competitive. Research results have also revealed that a flat organisational structure is the best for knowledge sharing. For improved organisational performance, knowledge management barriers must be removed with the assistance of management.