Linking KM effectiveness attributes to organizational performance
| Pages | 133-149 |
| Date | 26 June 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720710759928 |
| Published date | 26 June 2007 |
| Author | Vittal S. Anantatmula |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Linking KM effectiveness
attributes to organizational
performance
Vittal S. Anantatmula
Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The paper seeks to identify attributes of KM effectiveness and establish their relation
with business results. The research premise is that KM outcomes are difficult to measure but their
contributions to organizational performance can be assessed.
Design/methodology/approach – The research paper has addressed the following questions: what
are the key attributes of KM effectiveness? How can management use these key attributes to leverage
knowledge assets for improved organizational performance? A literature review was used to identify
the attributes of KM effectiveness. Then KM professionals and practitioners were invited to participate
and respond to a survey-based questionnaire to establish important attributes of KM effectiveness.
Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) was used to develop and determine the underlying relations
among these key attributes.
Findings – Leadership is the main driver for successful KM implementation. KM leadership is
primarily responsible for supporting and sustaining a learning environment in organizations.
Aligning KM initiatives with the strategic plan of organizations would direct KM efforts toward
improved organizational performance such as customer satisfaction and business growth. KM
initiatives promote customer satisfaction through better product or service quality. In turn, these
outcomes promote new products and services, and increased revenue.
Research limitations/implications – As KM practitioners and professionals have participated in
this study, these results are limited to the KM discipline only. As the majority of the respondents are
from for-profit organizations, the results may be biased towards for-profit organizations. The research
findings and conclusions must be seen in the context of the profiles of the respondents and
organizations they represent. Future research should focus on exploring how these attributes vary
with respect to demographics and type of organization. Further research efforts should include more
types of organizations from wider geographical regions.
Practical implications – KM effectiveness can lead to improvements in performance such as
customer satisfaction through better product or service quality. KM efforts can be directed to develop
new product or service developments, and increased revenues.
Originality/value – The research effort is an attempt to capture the mental model for successful KM
implementation. The study is useful for KM professionals in developing and implementing KM
systems and processes.
Keywords Knowledge management, Knowledge managementsystems, Modelling,
Organizationalperformance
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Organizations in the current economy recognize knowledge as a key economic resource
and it is considered important for sustaining competitive advantage. Needless to say,
organizations must possess the right knowledge in the desired form and content under
all circumstances to be successful. Specifically, sharing knowledge, and consequently
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Linking KM to
organizational
performance
133
VINE: The journal of information and
knowledge management systems
Vol. 37 No. 2, 2007
pp. 133-149
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720710759928
creating knowledge, are critical for organizations to gain and maintain competitive
edge.
Knowledge is rooted in our actions. The continuous progression of our civilization is
a testimony to its ability to develop, learn, and share knowledge. Globalization,
increasing international competition and a free-market philosophy are driving forces
that are changing the complexity of business competition. Furthermore, they are
promoting advances in information and communication technologies. One of the most
important benefits of these technological advancements is that they help to develop,
store, and transfer knowledge, which is linked to progress in practically every aspect of
our lives. Consequently, many organizations have realized that the creation, transfer,
and management of knowledge are critical for success today.
Knowledge management (KM) is a discipline that is still evolving, and the
dimension of KM has not received adequate attention (Holsapple and Joshi, 1999). Also,
the KM concept is still understood as information management and is associated with
technological solutions, such as intranets and databases (Marr, 2003). However, KM is
a much wider concept and we should understand that the primary focus of KM is to
utilize information technology and tools, business processes, best practices, and culture
to develop and share knowledge within an organization, and to connect those who
possess the knowledge to those who need the knowledge.
Several organizations are attempting to use KM to improve organizational
performance, but commonly accepted KM principles are not completely developed.
Among the commonly accepted KM principles or references that were missing are the
criteria for measuring success associated with KM (Anantatmula, 2005a, b). To address
this knowledge gap from the practitioner’s point of view, a research study was
undertaken, which led to identifying expected outcomes of a KM initiative in
organizations (Anantatmula, 2005a, b). In this study, KM professionals from 147
organizations in 21 countries participated and helped to identify the most useful
outcomes of KM. However, some of the useful KM outcomes identified by the study,
with the exception of improving productivity, are difficult to measure. These resul ts
are in conformance with another research study, which suggested that because
knowledge and its outcomes are difficult to measure, a suggested approach would be to
measure their contribution to business performance (Ahn and Chang, 2002). These
research results have identified the need and motivated us to address this research
issue further and link these KM outcomes to organizational performance.
Our current research effort is an extension of the research study of the most useful
outcomes of KM (Anantatmula, 2005a, b) with the aim of developing attributes for KM
effectiveness and their links to organizational performance. The objective of the
present research study is to establish the relation between KM effectiveness and the
performance of organizations.
In this paper, we start with a review of the literature to document the importance of
developing and defining attributes of KM effectiveness as a background for the
research. Using the literature research and analysis, we identify a list of attributes of
KM effectiveness. Using our survey-based research, which is targeted at KM
professionals and practitioners, we establish important attributes of KM effectiveness.
As a part of our analysis, we explore the structural linkages between these attributes
and provide a detailed discussion about these linkages. Subsequently, we discuss the
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