Knowledge management in museums: enhancing organizational performance and public value
| Date | 19 January 2023 |
| Pages | 1071-1087 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-08-2022-0187 |
| Published date | 19 January 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Neville Vakharia,Alex H. Poole |
Knowledge management
in museums: enhancing
organizational performance
and public value
Neville Vakharia
Department of Arts and Entertainment Enterprise, Drexel University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and
Alex H. Poole
Department of Information Science, College of Computing and Informatics,
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This study examines the enabling factors and practices that foster knowledge management in
museums and the impact of those factors and practices on museums’performance and public value.
Design/methodology/approach –The authors conducted an exploratory survey of senior leaders of 191
small and mid-sized museums in the United States. The survey tested a novel conceptual model that integrates
the constructs of knowledge management enablers, knowledge management orientation and organizational
performance. Descriptive andinferential statistical analyses of survey data were conducted to identify both the
presence and dimensions of these constructs as well as the nature of the relationships among them.
Findings –The results of this study identified strong and significant predictive relationships between the
constructs of its novel conceptual model. However, findings also identified key gaps in how museums create,
manage and share organizational knowledge. These gaps limit their organizational performance and their
ability to create public value. The authors identify specific factors and practices that enable museums to
improve their organizational performance and increase their public value.
Originality/value –As the first empirical study of knowledge management enablers and knowledge
management orientation in museums, this research not only adapts the study of these constructs to the
museum sector, but it develops a novel conceptual model that links these constructs to multiple dimensionsof a
museum’s organizational performance and public value. This research sets the stage for new study of
knowledge management in museums; it also provides valuable insights for museum leaders.
Keywords Knowledge management, Museums, Organizational performance, Public value
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Museumsare at a critical juncture as theyaddress the challenges of providingincreased public
value to justify public funding, optimizing their existing resources in service of optimal
organizationalperformance and grappling with a global pandemic. Museumshave long been
institutions that accumulate, analyze and distribute knowledge, providing fertile ground for
information science research (Marty, 1999). But much of this research has focused on
information organization and classification related to artifacts, objects and collections
(Chaudhryand Jiun, 2005;J€
orgensen, 200 4;Latham,2012;Marty et al.,2005;Marty, 2004), or on
the role ofinformation professionalswho perform information workto adapt new technologies
that foster information organization (Huvila, 2013;Marty, 2007). While such research
illuminatesmuseums’core stewardshipfunctions, museums alsoface ever-increasing pressure
to improve their organizational performance and demonstrate their public value to
Knowledge
management in
museums
1071
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which have
improved the paper significantly.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 30 August 2022
Revised 2 January 2023
Accepted 5 January 2023
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 5, 2023
pp. 1071-1087
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-08-2022-0187
communities and society (Scott, 2013;Turkel and Turkel, 2016). Both of these areas show
significant research gaps and opportunities for newresearch (V
arheim and Skare, 2022).
Understanding the role of knowledge management, specifically its enabling factors and
practices, provides a means by which museum leaders can create environments in which
knowledge is more effectively created, managed and shared. By applying these factors and
practices to museums and analyzing their relationship to organizational performance, we can
better understand the role of knowledge management in museums and its impact on
performance and public value.
Ultimately, this paper addresses the following research questions: First, what enablers
and practices facilitate knowledge management in museums? Second, how do these enablers
and practices affect organizational performance and public value? By empirically testing
these enabling factors and practices in museums and analyzing their relationship to
organizational performance, we can better understand the role of knowledge management in
museums and its impact on performance and public value.
2. Literature review
The constructs of knowledge management enablers and knowledge management orientation
underpin this research’s broader knowledge management perspective. Organizational
performance is also unpacked to demonstrate its fruitful applicability to assessing museum
performance and public value.
Knowledge management is a capacious term (Blair, 2002;Faucher et al., 2008;Gourlay and
Nurse, 2005;MacMorrow, 2001;Wallace, 2007); it has been defined and employed as a theory,
a construct, a practice and a field of study (Alavi and Leidner, 2001;Dalkir and Leibowitz,
2011;McInerney, 2002;Wallace, 2007). We define knowledge management as a socio-
technical constellation of organizational approaches and practices that embraces knowledge,
people, processes and technology (Desouza and Paquette, 2011). The conceptual lens of
knowledge management offers new and timely insights into the enabling factors and
practices of museums’leadership as they seek to improve their museum’s organizational
performance and by extension, their museum’s public value. Leadership must strategically
and intentionally create the systems and processes that emphasize the creation, management
and sharing of organizati onal knowledge both inside an d outside of the museum
(Christensen, 2013;Koenig, 2005;Scott, 2013).
Because the study of knowledge management spans multiple concepts and literature, it is
most effectively assessed through the organizational conditions that precede it, known as
knowledge management enablers and through the practices and actions that foster it, known
as a knowledge management orientation.
2.1 Knowledge management enablers (KMEs)
KMEs are the influencing factors that foster knowledge consistently within an organization
(Ichijo et al., 1998) to initiate knowledge creation and sharing (Stonehouse and Pemberton,
1999)(Palacios Marqu
es and Garrig
os Sim
on, 2006). According to Leonard-Barton (1995),
KMEs facilitate knowledge building activities that can be broken down into four components:
(1) organizational culture of collaboration and trust; (2) organizational structure that is
decentralized and non-hierarchical; (3) worker skills that are T-shaped (workers have deep
knowledge in their own areas but also broad knowledge of what others do); and (4) well-used
and -supported information technology (see also Appleyard, 1996;Bennett and Gabriel, 1999;
Lee and Choi, 2003;Kogut and Zander, 1992).
While scholars have studied KMEs in multiple industries and organization types,
primarily as an independent variable or precursor to intermediate organizational outcomes or
JD
79,5
1072
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