Organizational Knowledge Creation Research Articles

The impact of ethical leadership on KM practices and performance

AbstractRecent advancements in leadership research emphasise the influential role of ethical leadership in shaping positive employee behaviour. However, there remains unclear the precise impact of ethical leadership on organisational performance and its interaction with knowledge creation and knowledge networks. Drawing on both the knowledge‐based view and the ethical leadership literature, this study asserts a positive influence of ethical leadership on both organisational performance and knowledge creation. Furthermore, we propose that knowledge creation positively impacts knowledge networks, which, in turn, exert a positive influence on organisational performance. To validate these propositions, we employ structural equation modelling on a dataset comprising 205 Turkish firms. Our study contributes to the (ethical) leadership literature as one of the initial attempts to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and organisational performance while considering the roles of knowledge creation and knowledge networks.

Impact of the Use of Emerging Technologies on Organisational Knowledge-creation Capability by Task Complexity

In the context of knowledge-based economy, an organisation’s ability to create knowledge is the most important factor in maintaining its competitiveness. Collective intelligence is posited as a paramount methodology not only for the generation of knowledge pertaining to multifaceted issues but also as a fundamental pillar within the framework of organizational knowledge management. The use of emerging technologies is an important strategy for improving the organisation’s ability to create knowledge through collective intelligence by adding depth and breadth of knowledge. However, excessive use of technology often has a negative impact on organisational knowledge management. Therefore, this study aims to identify the two-sided effect of using emerging technologies (big data analytics (BDA) and online platforms) on organisational knowledge creation according to the complexity of the task. The results of our study suggest that the use of BDA technology for organisational knowledge creation should be maintained at an appropriate level in general, but it is recommended to increase the use of BDA technology for low-complexity tasks. In addition, using online platform technology is difficult to consider as a strategic way to solve high-complexity tasks, but increasing the use of BDA technology can contribute to improving the organisation’s ability to create knowledge.

Indigenous Peoples’ Phronetic Leadership: A Trailblazing Case Study of Bacut Man-Made Lake for Agri-Eco-Tourism, Apayao, Philippines

Indigenous Phronetic Leaders inspired and promoted immense developments in communities through collective organizational knowledge creation. The study aimed to identify the problem of farmers, determine how phronetic leadership was practiced by the key informant, and describe the present situation of Bacut, Santa Marcela, Apayao, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Philippines. Mr. Elorde P. Anniban, an indigenous phronetic leaders was the main participant and the protagonist. He is an indigenous respected elder or “pangat” who, despite being physically disabled, initiated reforms in Bacut. In-depth interviews and document reviews were applied in this management case study. Results revealed that the main problem of the farmers was low rice production because there was no water system to irrigate their farmlands. Without the knowledge of the key participant, he applied the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization (SECI) model and encouraged the mining of bright ideas of the people, engaged stakeholders and relentlessly sought government intervention to address the problem of farmers. Through the phronetic leadership of the key informant, the farmers, and the government leaders, an environment-friendly dam, fondly called the Bacut Lake was constructed irrigating farmlands and doubling and even tripling rice production addressing poverty in Santa Marcela, Apayao. In addition, indigenous peoples' phronetic leadership, the province of Apayao has now an astounding agri-eco-tourism site, a national park, rich in biodiversity, and several existing organizations are working together to boost the economy of the farmers and the province. On the other hand, Ifugao State University, a government higher education institution in the country, crystallized a phronetic leadership framework as an offshoot of the study.
 
 Received: 28 September 2023 / Accepted: 23 February 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024

Exploration or exploitation orientation, subgroup structure and organizational knowledge creation

ABSTRACT Significant performance differences in the process of knowledge creation may exist between organisations with exploratory and exploitative tendencies due to differences in their inner network structures. This study focuses on the subgroups widespread in intra-organisational networks and their structural characteristics. We construct an agent-based model that describes the two different organisational learning models that exist in organisations – exploration-oriented and exploitation-oriented. We find that higher network density in each subgroup helps increase the speed of knowledge creation but depletes the idiosyncratic sets of beliefs and leads to premature convergence. Only when the network scale is large enough or the organisation tends to focus more on exploration can a sparse network play a positive role in knowledge creation. Moderate levels of cross-group links prevent exploitation-oriented organisations from entering the stagnation stage of knowledge growth and increase the knowledge creation performance of exploration-oriented organisations. Knowledge creation performance in exploitation-oriented organisations depends more on boundary hubs than on internal hubs. The presence of twofold hubs can improve knowledge creation performance without significantly reducing the dissimilarity of collective beliefs.

Employee Psychological Resources as a Microfoundation for Organizational Knowledge Creation Across Cultures: A Yin–Yang Dialectical Systems View

In the new normal, characterized by intensifying digitalization and cross-cultural conflicts, organizational knowledge creation (KC) for the purpose of innovation necessitates better orchestration of stakeholders with culturally distinct beliefs and polychronic working patterns. This implies an imperative to address organizational KC from a microangle that can help decipher profound cultural codes in human mental programming. Thus, this research departs from a Yin–Yang dialectical system view that can interpret cross-cultural cognitive paradoxes and uses a microfoundational approach to explore how employees’ psychological capital (PsyCap) affects the KC capability and moderating effects of social capital-enhancing HR configuration on the above mechanisms. Using cross-border e-business models as the setting, the results of this article show an inverse U-shaped relationship between hope/optimism/self-efficacy and KC and a positive association between resilience and KC. Moreover, we found that social capital-enhancing HR configuration may intervene in these relationships. Our study adopts a Yin–Yang dialectical system framework to theoretically decode how different components of PsyCap act as a microfoundation to co-engineer KC processes with culturally diverse stakeholders, enriching the positive psychology and knowledge management literature. The results offer implications for orchestrating the intertwining streams of polychronic KC among multinationals in turbulent times.

Museum as a Learning Organization: The Power of the Museum Exhibition and New Organizational Knowledge

This article is a presentation of the results of research on the exhibition named The Power of the Museum, which took place at the National Museum in Krakow in 2020/2021. The exhibition became, for the authors, a case study conducted using the methodology of humanistic management. The aim of the analysis undertaken in the text is to show the museum and its employees as a learning organization in the situation of introducing an innovation, which was an exhibition organized in an innovative way for the institution. The authors focused on describing the new fields of knowledge activated in the team, including the education department, i.e., the curators of The Power of the Museum exhibition, the conservators, or the curators employed in this position. Mapping the implementation of new knowledge was also an important part of the research. The authors were interested in systemic and informal standards in the perception and use of educators' competences. They also addressed the problem of the formation of informal relationships and the generation of institutional trust in the exhibition implementation process. The authors adopted a perspective in which they were interested in the process of exhibition making, the shifts of responsibilities between museum departments, and, as a result, the creation of new individual, organizational, and systemic knowledge. With this optic, the article answers the research question of how to structurally open up exhibition work to continuous learning, not only at the level of the subject matter but of the exhibition staging process itself. In this respect, it is an innovative view not only from the perspective of the management of a museum institution but also fits into the broader field of museological reflection.

Process Management Practice Analysis on Organizational Performance Mediated by Knowledge Creation

Knowledge is an important resource that supports process management to produce efficient and effective products and services. The research objective is to examine the influence of process management on performance through the role of knowledge creation in the future of new normal. Survey method with saturated sample was used for data collection on 126 head of study programs at public and private universities in the city of Semarang. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to analyze the data. The results of the study found that process management has no direct effect on organizational performance and knowledge creation directly affects performance. Tests indirectly show that the knowledge creation shown to mediate the effect of process management on organizational performance. Implications of research for leaders as a consideration in the implementation of process management practices and knowledge creation in the new normal era of the organization. Suggestions for future research should use a longitudinal design, so that studies can be developed and explored more deeply and prepare other techniques or strategies as alternative solutions in data collection so that they are in accordance with the set targets

Implementation of Quality Management Practices and Firm’s Innovation Performance: Mediation of Knowledge Creation Processes and Moderating role of Digital Transformation

Presently, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) revolution is transforming operations and businesses of organizations through technological advancements.These digital technologies are hugely impacting the technological innovations (TIs) and execution of total quality management (TQM) in the organizations. Existent literature on TQM and firm’s innovation performance (IP) relation has shown mixed findings exclusively, in manufacturing companies. Desptie strategic significance of both TQM and innovation (INN) to improve sustainable competitive gain, this is an under-researched area in I4.0 context. Additionally, the Quality 4.0 is also new concept and role of I4.0 tchnologies in transformation of trational TQM function hasn’t been researched so far. Despite strategic significance of role of knowledge creation processes (KCPs) towards firm’s IP and performance in I4.0, there is dearth of research addressing integrative framework TQM, KC and IP exclusively in progressing country context. Considering these prevailing gaps in literature, current study is an attempt to develop and test a model in context of Pakistan in relevance to I4.0. The proposed framework examines the influence of executing quality management or QM practices (QMP) on innovation performance (IP). Additionally, mediating role of knowledge creation processes (KCPs) and moderation of digital transformation (DIT) is also explored in QMP-IP relation. Data of 265 respondents were obtained from ISO 9001 certified manufacturing firms of Pakistan through structured questionnaire on Likert Scale. Data were analysed through SPSS 23.0 and Hayes process macro applying statistical tests (reliability, correlation, and regression analysis). Study results revealed that all variables were positively correlated. Quality management practices (QMP) had positive and significant impact on firm’s IP. Results supported partial mediation effect of organizational knowledge creation processes (KCPs) in QMP-IP relationship. While, moderating impact of digital transformation (DIT) in QMP-IP relation was also supported. Study findings has implications for both and academia, management and practitioner. This study contributes to prevalent literature as it empirically tests a proposed framework to address under-researched area of QMP- IP relation in relevance to DIT and KCPs in Pakistan context and I4.0.

Searching for Organizational Knowledge Creation Pattern in Military Nursing Education in Iran with the Use of Meta-synthesis

INTRODUCTION: Due to the limited current knowledge about the appropriate trainings for the improvement of competence in military nurses, it seems necessary to use the processes of creating and sharing knowledge to fill the gap between the current knowledge and the required one. Therefore, this research has searched for the pattern of organizational knowledge creation in military nursing education using a meta-synthesis method. METHODS: The research was conducted using the meta-synthesis method (thematic analysis), and the findings were systematically reviewed based on the seven-step pattern of Sandelowski, Barroso and Voils (2007). For this purpose, 348 articles were reviewed, and finally, 33 articles were confirmed by referring to valid and accessible documents of the sites. FINDINGS: The network of extracted themes was identified as an eight-component pattern including team-oriented approach, individual factors, managerial factors, technological factors, communication factors, organizational policy-making, implementation of knowledge creation process, and organizational culture. CONCLUSION: The implementation of knowledge creation leads to the promotion of military nursing education and, as a result, to the improvement of military nurses performance. To this end, factors such as culture building, using the knowledge of experienced nurses, past successful experiences and updating systems with new information technology tools are effective in creating knowledge. This approach can be an influential factor in advancing the scientific and practical goals of the commanders regarding the creation of knowledge and reducing the waste of time and financial resources.

Untangling the knowledge creation in the cross-project organisations

ABSTRACT This study aims to untangle the knowledge creation in the cross-project organisations. Drawing on knowledge creation theory, this study developed a theoretical model and hypotheses, and examined them with 402 samples in China. The results indicate that knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between innovation climate and knowledge creation. The mediation is further moderated by knowledge integration capability. By the comparison, marketing knowledge is the easiest to create, while managerial knowledge is the most difficult to create. This study contributes to knowledge creation theory by making an in-depth discussion on the differences of specific types of knowledge creation.

Towards Industry 5.0: Developing Knowledge and Skills in a Research and Innovation Lab

The challenging global environmental, economic, and societal transformations urge Norwegian industry to capitalize on all value creation from the manufacturing processes. For many companies, this implies taking manufacturing back to Norway. However, high labour costs do not allow Norway to compete in the global market, and therefore industry needs to take advantage of state-of-the-art technologies. Norwegian society is experiencing a steep learning curve: the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for engineers and managers in companies, while simultaneously transforming and aligning educational programs in universities with Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0. This research presents a knowledge management perspective of the Industry 5.0 competence platform from the viewpoint of Manulab, a research and innovation lab specializing in Industry 4.0 technologies for the small-scale production of customized products. Located at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Ålesund, Manulab collaborates closely with regional industries, including marine, maritime, furniture, and food production, as well as suppliers to these sectors. While Industry 4.0 concepts developed in Manulab have significant potential for value creation, companies and stakeholders have yet to fully capitalize on them. To address this issue, the research adopts Nonaka and Takeuchi's organizational knowledge creation model and applies it to the competence building processes in Manulab, investigating the contribution from different knowledge workers to each phase. The term "knowledge workers" refers to individuals with specialized knowledge and expertise who create value for their organization. The study shows that involving additional knowledge workers in various phases of the Manulab competence building process is crucial for successful implementation of research projects in industry. Furthermore, this human-centric approach can assist companies in transitioning to the Industry 5.0 paradigm. The research is a collaborative effort among researchers, students, and employees holding various positions within industrial companies.

How can technology leverage university teaching & learning innovation? A longitudinal case study of diffusion of technology innovation from the knowledge creation perspective

This paper expands the innovation diffusion framework by adding a conceptual and empirical exploration of knowledge creation into understanding university technology-enhanced teaching and learning innovation. Institutional innovation research has largely focused on people and products while neglecting the underlying knowledge creation process for innovation that substantiates and sustains the diffusion of innovation across stages. Guided by a combined framework of organisational knowledge creation theory with the diffusion of technology-enhanced teaching & learning (T&L) innovation, this 4-year longitudinal qualitative study focused on a Chinese case of Tsinghua University, which has pioneered the adoption of digital teaching and learning, and generating exemplary sustainable whole-institutional teaching and learning innovation. We explored how technology leverages the interactions between technologies, adopters, and leadership within a university to build capacities for digital T&L innovation by tracing the technology innovation trajectory of Tsinghua University. The case study identified four stages of knowledge creation related to technology adoption and innovation. Of these stages, knowledge externalisation processes were found to be critical for leveraging the co-creation of knowledge for institutional innovation in the university context. Additionally, the study showed that the middle-up-down leadership strategy and middle managements’ knowledge management ability facilitated the sustainable transition from individual and group exploration to organisational innovation. The implications for strategic technology adoption and sustainable teaching and learning innovation in the university contexts are also discussed.

Organizational knowledge: definitions, taxonomies, and metaphors in a digital transformation environment

Purpose: In the era of digital transformation, organizational knowledge becomes even more important than before in building the competitive advantage of enterprises (Malerba et al., 2020; Santorno et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2023). Digital transformation forces companies to rethink knowledge resources to meet current requirements. Design/methodology/approach: The research methods consist of a comprehensive and systematic domestic and foreign literature review of organizational knowledge definitions, taxonomies, and metaphors in a digital transformation environment. Findings: The development of companies in a dynamic, competitive business environment with digital transformation is altering the way knowledge is perceived within organizations and requires a new approach to understanding knowledge assets and their formation. Research limitations/implications: The research should continue on the relationship between digital transformation and knowledge processes in the organization (acquisition, generation, storage, sharing, and transfer). Practical implications: The research results prove that an adequate understanding of organizational knowledge, its taxonomy, and the right choice of metaphors guide efforts on knowledge creation in organizations in a digital transformation environment. Originality/value: The research contributes to organizational knowledge management and sheds light on how knowledge metaphor analysis contributes to diagnosing situations and finding solutions that contribute to an organization’s potential. Keywords: Systematic literature review, organizational knowledge, knowledge definitions, knowledge taxonomies, metaphorical analysis. Category of the paper: Literature review, general review.

Émergence d’un espace tiers pour la réflexivité dans la collaboration entre chercheurs et praticiens : le Bâ collaboratif

How can the collaboration between practitioners and academics contribute to generating knowledge used in the development of new organizational practices? Drawing on the concept of “Bâ,” we analyze an exemplary case of collaboration between a researcher and HR practitioners to develop a talent management strategy specific to production operators in an industrial automotive company facing the challenges of Industry 4.0. By distinguishing a specific collaborative “Ba,” we account for the reflexivity generated and the interactions of differentiated knowledge conducive to the creation of new organizational knowledge and practices.

Cross-Border Innovation: Assessing Concepts, Contexts, and Content

This study provides an outlook of the evolution of cross-border innovation literature. A sample of 226 articles addressing cross-border innovation and knowledge transfer published between 1997 and 2022 was screened using bibliometric methods. Data are split over three time slices and a thematic analysis is conducted, suggesting three main themes in literature: research-and-development, mostly linked with mergers and acquisitions and competitiveness, knowledge creation and transfer linked with innovations systems and performance, and innovation linked with networks, firms’ capabilities, and absorptive capacity. A co-citation analysis was also conducted which showed that the background literature of the research stream is based on the internationalization process, knowledge transfer and competitiveness, research-and-development, business performance and innovation systems. Results further introduce a geographic boundary to the research in knowledge and innovation, particularly frontier and regional innovation systems. Based on the results, future research lines are suggested, including the role of organizational learning and knowledge creation, towards the innovation of new products and services of companies seeking internationalization, and how disruptive events in worldwide supply chains affect cross-border innovation.

Social Innovation through Evaluation Science Dynamic Learning Approaches for Nonprofit Leaders Driving Social Change

Program evaluation, as a learning process, offers promise for nonprofit leaders. Rather than conducting research on organizations, evaluators partner with organizational leaders, helping them, in real-time, understand their programs, policies, and systems; prioritize their informational needs; and generate credible and actionable knowledge to answer their questions. This article 1) outlines why evaluation may be a more responsive learning process for nonprofit leaders, in contrast to other research processes; 2) describes the field of program evaluation and its contributions to knowledge creation for nonprofits; 3) explains an evaluation approach, called developmental evaluation, that produces real-time, complexity-informed knowledge resources for nonprofit leaders; and 4) concludes by encouraging nonprofit leaders to make the most of processes, like developmental evaluation, by building their capacity to promote sustained organizational learning and knowledge creation that is conducted for them and by them as opposed to on them.

Understanding the FLE-based organizational knowledge creation process in hospitality firms

This study explores how front-line employees' (FLE) knowledge is stepwise transformed into a hotel's organizational knowledge. It combines insights from organizational knowledge creation theory with empirical evidence from three Chinese five-star hotels. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and reading archives, and analyzed using thematic analysis. We develop a novel framework comprising three types of FLEs' knowledge activities–knowledge demonstration (KD), knowledge justification (KJ), and knowledge re-contextualization (KRC)–which can routinely trigger the hotel's bottom-up organizational knowledge creation process. We also explain how FLEs' KD/KJ/KRC activities facilitate the hotel's organizational knowledge creation practices by examining changes in the new knowledge's scope of application and the participant structure of knowledge-related interactions induced by these activities. This study contributes to knowledge management research in hospitality by proposing a new perspective that encompasses FLEs' knowledge activities and the concomitant knowledge transformation that occurs in hotels.

Validating knowledge creation factors for community resilience to disaster using structural equation modelling

Knowledge has an important role in reducing disaster risk. However, at the level of policy and practice, this issue is rarely dealt with in a systematic and in-depth manner. Therefore, using an approach based on the Dynamic Theory of Organisational Knowledge Creation of Nonaka (1994), this research intends to develop and analyse the structure of a new Knowledge Creation model to increase community resilience. This study used a cross-sectional design survey of 537 respondents who live in coastal cities in Indonesia. Data analysis was conducted using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method. The results of the model feasibility test show that the hypothesised pathway among the variables under study has a strong statistical significance. The variables are: i) knowledge assets; ii) ba; iii) Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination, and Internalisation (SECI); iv) enablers; v) disaster preparedness; and vi) community resilience. Therefore, this study concludes that the proposed Knowledge Creation for Community Resilience (KCCR) model provides a fairly good fit for empirical data. It is hoped that the KCCR model that has been developed in this study will be of use to education authorities and disaster management agencies, at both local and national levels, and particularly in influencing the planning and implementation of community preparedness in facing disasters. This research is expected to enrich studies in the field of knowledge management, especially in the public knowledge domain, in dealing with disasters and providing recommendations, for policymakers and practitioners to incorporate aspects of knowledge management into efforts to increase community resilience.

Facilitating Cyber Security Threat Modelling: A Social Capital Perspective

To identify and manage their cyber security risks, organisations need to form a thorough understanding of various factors that may expose them to these risks. While cyber security professionals and scholars have developed a plethora of practical methodologies and frameworks to support cyber security risk identification and mitigation, the theoretical foundations on what promotes effective knowledge creation when using these methodologies and frameworks are nascent. Yet, theories developed in the field of knowledge management and intellectual capital may provide valuable insight on how to enhance cyber security risk related knowledge creation in organisations. For example, social capital is considered as an important prerequisite for knowledge exchange and combination when creating new intellectual capital (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). However, more focused research is required to understand how social capital affects knowledge creation in the context of organisational cyber security risk related activities.
 
 Using qualitative data gathered from three cyber security threat modelling workshops, this paper examines how social capital enables conditions for exchanging and combining knowledge on cyber security threats. By comparing the empirical observations with Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) model, this study identifies practical approaches that are used by threat modelling workshop facilitators to create conditions for effective knowledge exchange and combination. This study provides both cyber security scholars and professionals with an example on how to use knowledge creation related academic theories to analyse and further enhance cyber security risk management approaches by creating a connection between Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) social capital model and cyber security threat modelling.

The SECI model and darknet markets: Knowledge creation in criminal organizations and communities of practice

This study examines darknet markets through the lens of a business theory on knowledge management. Taking epistemological and ontological dimensions into consideration, this study uses Nonaka's (1991) SECI model as a theoretical framework to identify and describe how tacit and explicit knowledge is created and shared on Silk Road, Pandora and Agora darknet markets, and how people affect this process. By studying this process, insights can be obtained into darknet market criminal organizations and communities of practice and their impact on the continuity and resilience of illicit darknet markets. This project used data from the Internet Archive collection of publicly available darknet market scrapes between 2011 and 2015 from Branwen et al. (2015) . We observed instances of the SECI model (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) on darknet markets in both criminal organizations and communities of practice. Darknet market leaders and groups facilitated both knowledge creation and sharing. This study is the first to test the SECI model on darknet markets. The study provides an understanding of the complexity and resilience of darknet markets, as well as valuable information to help guide law enforcement agencies efforts to stop the illicit trade of goods and services.