Assessing the influence of knowledge management practices on organizational performance. An ISM approach
| Date | 12 August 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-04-2019-0050 |
| Pages | 440-456 |
| Published date | 12 August 2019 |
| Author | Jamini Ranjan Meher,Rohita Kumar Mishra |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,Knowledge management systems |
Assessing the influence of
knowledge management practices
on organizational performance
An ISM approach
Jamini Ranjan Meher and Rohita Kumar Mishra
Department of Business Administration, Sambalpur University, Burla, India
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to identify the contribution of knowledge management (KM) enablers for the
organizational performance.It is difficult to measure the KM enablers, but thereis sufficient reason for the
contribution to employee empowerment, and indirect effects to employee commitment and organizational
performancecan be accessed.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper has addressed the following questions: What are the key
attributes for the contribution of organizational performance? What is the role of KM enablers to the
organizationalperformance? A systematic literature review was used to identifythe KM enablers that drive
organizationalperformance. The knowledge officersand software developers were invited to participate and
respondto a survey based questionnaireto establish the importantattributes of KM effectiveness.Interpretive-
structuralmodelling was used to developand determine the relationshipbetween the identified enablers.
Findings –Organizational learning,clients’review and organizational culture are the important variables
for the implementation of KM practices. Moreover,both knowledge sharing and knowledge integration are
responsible for employee empowermentand indirectly they accelerate the essence of employee commitment
and organizational performance. Clients’review plays a vital role in identifying the quality issues of the
productand services.
Research limitations/implications –The research findings and conclusions must be seen in the
context of profilesof the respondents and the organization they belongs to. The respondents are limitedto HR
professionalsof IT firms and software developers.
Practical implications –KM enablers can lead to minimization of clients complain and make them
satisfied for using the product. KM effort can also redirect toward the innovation for the improvement of
productdesign and quality.
Originality/value –The study used interpretive-structural modelling for identifying the enablers and
making a proper plan for the systematic knowledge acquisition process. The study is useful for KM
professionals in developing and implementing KM systems and processes in the field of their respective
domainsto improve organizational performance.
Keywords Knowledge management, Organizational performance, Interpretive structural modelling
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Indian economy is the fifth largest economy and fourth fastest growing economy of the
world on the basis of GDP ranking, with a population of more than 1.35 billion (London,
2018). India started as a hub of agricultural society and with the shifting of time it has
been more focused toward information technology and manufacturing setups.
According to the CIA report, less than half of its workforce is engaged in the
agricultural sector, whereas one-third of its workforce is in the service sector and
providing two-third of the Indian economic growth. The past decades have been
VJIKMS
49,3
440
Received9 April 2019
Revised2 July 2019
9 July2019
Accepted18 July 2019
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.49 No. 3, 2019
pp. 440-456
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-04-2019-0050
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5891.htm
eventually transforming cultivation-based economy to an industry-based economy.
Indian economy is more inclined toward exporting of information technology services,
business outsourcing services and software workers (CIA, 2019). The demand for
people management becomes a challenge to industries based on knowledge-handling
capacity and simultaneously with their performance. The shift from manufacturing to
service and service to knowledge economies is making human resource (HR) the core
ingredient with respect to the national well-being and global competitiveness (Rao,
2015). Technological penetration, innovation capabilities and knowledge management
(KM) become the biggest challenges in Indian organizations. The performance of an
organization nowadays is more inclined toward the innovation capabilities through the
best use of their knowledge personnel. However, the learning culture in organizations is
more reliable and can open up the tendency of organizational performance. The
performanceofanorganizationshouldbeassuredofthequalityoftheproductand
services. It has been noticed that maintaining the quality and sustaining in the market
is a big challenge for the service sector such as IT.
Service-oriented planning is a highly essential component, which provides a
structured way of assurance for quality, and has a high level of customer satisfact ion. A
product or service is considered good when the satisfaction derived from the product or
service is very high. A satisfied customer always gives a better review after using that
product or service. Again, it can be improvised when the demand of the customer are to
be fulfilled. So, to record the voice of the customer and increase the level of satisfaction,
quality functions deployment (QFD) become the necessary tool (Akao and Mazur, 2003;
Andronikidis et al., 2009). The main objective of QFD is to increase customer
satisfaction, organizational integration based on customer demand and improved
profitability (Akdag et al., 2016). It also focuses on delivering value to the customer,
aiming toward the expressed and unexpressed customer requirements (Pun et al., 2000).
It is regulated by the voice of the customer and addresses the gaps between specificand
holistic components of customer expectation and actual service experience
(Andronikidis et al., 2009). For an IT firm, the most valuable customers are the client
those who are dealing with the services, software provided by the company. On the
basis of the argument of QFD, their demand can be fulfilled by the customer care
personnel and product development team. It is the human capital who exploits the other
resources and makes them usable in the production and development process (Jandaghi
et al., 2010). Therefore, human capital is treated as the most important and valuable
resources for an organization and this capital have to be well managed by the
organization for the sake of client satisfaction. A well-managed human capital needs to
be well developed in terms of skills, knowledge and innovation capabilities.
Globalization became the most reasonable aspects of the emergence of KM. The
knowledge economy has a strong hold over human capital management with respect to
knowledge content and knowledge source (Pacharapha and Ractham, 2012). In the last
few years, KM has become the most important lineofresearch.Althoughthereisagood
amount of literature that is sufficient to identify the indicators of KM practices and
organizational performance, there is still a lack of a specific model that signifies the
perfect relationship between KM practices and organizational performance. The real
challenge arises when it comes to the retention of knowledge sources. The intellectual
capacities that reside in individuals mind are the most important catalyst for
knowledge creation. The individual may be employees, customers, suppliers,
stakeholders, etc. (Joshi et al., 2014). The firms are more concerned about edifice the
knowledge assets for their competitiveness. In most of the organizations, knowledge
Influence of
knowledge
management
practices
441
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