Knowledge Management become one of the most important fields in management practices and developed as a basic economy and firm resources. Knowledge management is defined as distribution, collection and effective utilization of knowledge resources. It is a process creation, validation, presentation, distribution and evaluation of knowledge. It is also described as a set of infrastructures, procedures, managerial and technical tools, geared towards sharing, creating, leveraging knowledge and information within and across organizations.
Moreover, knowledge Management is a multi dimensional concept with a various number of interrelated factors. However, its three dimensions or factors that are commonly found in the literature are: knowledge adaptation or acquisition, knowledge sharing or dissemination and knowledge use or knowledge responsiveness. These concepts are applicable in the practices in the organizations with an important pre-condition for effective knowledge management identified as culture or organizational culture. Culture in an organizational has been considered as form of organizational capital and produces significant influences on behavior, action, and values that individuals in an organization is expected to follow and share. Culture is also considered to be one of the key elements in g organizational management change and knowledge renewal management in an organization.
The articles discussed below are some of the numerous literatures discussing how culture influences organizational knowledge management processes.
Saeed Tahir, Tayyab Basit, Anis-ul-Haque and Chaudhry, Anwar. "Knowledge Management practices: Role of Organizational Culture. ASBBS 17 (2020). Web. 8 October 2010
In this paper, Saeed, Tayyab, Anis-ul-Haque and Chaudhry discussed the key pressure on management practices and identified it as knowledge creation, identification, innovation, development of talent and dissemination. The study collected data from 813 purposively selected corporate sector employees at various managerial positions. The survey questionnaires used covered the concepts on Knowledge Management Practices Scale (KMPS) and Organizational culture scale (OCS). The authors also underscore the necessary for addressing the deviation in knowledge management practices. The empirical and theoretical importance of this paper is the investigation of the role of culture attributes in terms of formalization, collaboration, learning and trust based on knowledge management practices. Results gathered through multiple regressions revealing Formalization, Collaboration and Trust were significantly predict Knowledge Management Practices. Moreover, ANOVA analysis showed significant difference with reference to knowledge management processes and managerial position levels. This paper is one of the pioneer works on the subject that provides evidence, contributing to the body of knowledge in organizational culture field and discussing the role of knowledge management in context of Pakistani organization. The findings of this study help knowledge management practitioners and researchers in developing a better understanding of organizational culture role and effective implementation of knowledge management process. Moreover, this paper can be helpful in developing and designing policies, strategies and training manuals with necessary guidelines for better understanding of the issues in culture and knowledge management. The limitation of the study as well as future research and implications are also discussed.
van den Hooff, Bart and Schipper, Saskia. "Competitive Organizational Cultures and Knowledge Sharing" Journal of International Communication Association. 2 (2010): 541-554. Web. 8 October 2010
Authors use information from survey of six different organizations competitive organizational cultures and knowledge sharing. This paper discussed organizational culture as an important element in implementing effective and successful knowledge management. In this study, the authors consider the degree of competitiveness influence of such organizational cultures on knowledge sharing which is a crucial process involved in knowledge management. Initially, the researchers distinguish two main knowledge sharing processes: knowledge collecting and knowledge donating. Then, they presented motivational factors that can be related to variables related to willingness of individuals to share own their knowledge with other people or knowledge sharing: social identification, relational uncertainty and affective commitment. Next, the authors discuss the various competitive organizational culture dimensions such as masculinity, individualism, and low uncertainty avoidance, and how the given elements influence the person's motivational factors. Through a theoretical model, the paper showed a tested concept from a survey study of six different organizations. The results of the study generally support the authors' theoretical arguments: masculinity, individualism and low uncertainty avoidance are important and related dimensions of a competitive culture and these elements generally exert negative effect on both knowledge collecting and knowledge donating. Also, authors emphasized the role of knowledge sharing must start from intra-departmental level to the interdepartmental level.
Alavi Maryam, Kayworth Timothy and Leidner Dorothy. "An Empirical Examination of the Influence of Organizational Culture on Knowledge Management Practices. Journal of Management Information Systems 22 (2006): 3, 191-224. Web. 8 October 2010
Authors from M. E. Sharpe, Incorporated in Armonk, New York collected information from a selected organization utilizing case study method. This paper aims to further explore the influences of knowledge management practices on organizational culture. Utilizing the case study method, the researchers examine the knowledge management and cultural values approaches within a large global services information company and one of its knowledge communities. They primarily suggest that knowledge management is important to facilitate the creation, storage, application and transfer of knowledge in specific organizations. This issue, according to them has received significant attention in the field of research and practice in the past several years. This issue is often cited as important challenge in knowledge management practices and organizational culture. Although this paper raises different issues of influence by organizational culture on the success of knowledge management, there are few evidences that investigate the way in which this influence exists. The findings of this study highlight the cultural influence on the utilization of knowledge management technologies and its resulting product. The findings help knowledge management practitioners and researchers in developing policies and strategies in organizational culture and successful implementation of knowledge management process.
Huang, Meikuan. "Cultural Influences on Cross-Organizational Knowledge Transfer in International Strategic Alliances," International Communication Association 1 (2010): 100-124. Web. 8 October 2010
The author of this article gathered data from qualitative research method and case study of international joint ventures and international cooperative ventures. The paper basically discussed the international strategic alliances that are flourishing with the advent of modern technological advances that may have primarily reduced the geographical barriers among the organizations involved. Furthermore the researcher identified a major incentive for developing and creating alliances as an opportunity to learn from the organization's partner firms. In this study, there are a number of factors that influenced knowledge learning and transfer international joint ventures and among international cooperative ventures, among which factors concerning culture are especially necessary for the learning through cross-organizations and among strategic alliances beyond national origin. In addition the author also emphasized that cultural distance could easily be added to the challenges and difficulties in the knowledge and learning transfer process. This paper investigates how cultural factors could hinder or promote the inter-organizational learning strategies and efforts, and four propositions are created and developed on the alliance partner knowledge transfer relationship and cultural determinants.
Allen Richard, Dawson, Gilbert, Wheatley, Kurt and White, Christian. 'Diversity Practices: 'Diversity Practices: Learning Responses for Modern Organizations,' Development and Learning in Recruitment and selection in Organizations 18 (2004). 6, 13-15. Web. 8 October 2010
Allen, Dawson, Wheatley and White focuses on the influence of culture on the knowledge management specifically in the area of recruitment and selection review presented through empirical evidence. It suggests many employees and managers regard knowledge management as being equal to having an equal opportunity for any person to enter the organization. The researchers presented that human resource managers usually tend to bring people into the organization and promote employees who fit or have culture and values similar to the decision makers or gatekeepers through literature review which is presented clearly. Using the critical review of the literature, this study reveals three prominent features of HR diversity practices. The study have a major contribution to the value of reverse diffusion as a means of learning 'best practice' and speeding up the internationalization of firms from less developed economies. Analysis of the data produced by participants using the in-depth research would be instrumental in answering the research questions. Making references to new research on cognitive learning, the researcher must undertook this study in order to study the management transfer is emerging which is an integrated set of tools to facilitate group interaction and task performance during face to face meetings
Summary
The articles discussed in this paper primarily support and investigate the influence of culture on organizational knowledge management processes. These studies provide a variety of concept regarding the value of organizational knowledge management in a collectivistic culture and provide empirical evidence to the present practices by identifying and discussing the cultural attributes that support or inhibit knowledge management processes. These studies also present an understanding and facilitate further research in this area. The future researchers and practitioners in this field could extend and improve these researches to enhance and improve the preliminary findings the context of the past researches by exploring in different organizational settings.
