Impact of Knowledge Management Capabilities on Knowledge Management Effectiveness in Indian Organizations
Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj,
Sumedha Chauhan,
Aparna Raman
Affiliations
Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj
Professor of Information Management at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India. She has an MSc (Hons) Mathematics, a Master of Management Studies, an ME (Systems and Information), and a Ph.D from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. Prior to joining MDI, she has taught at FORE School of Management and BITS, Pilani. She has worked as software Engineer and has successfully headed and run an entrepreneurial venture for four years. Her teaching and research interests include MIS, Managing IT Projects, Software Project Management, Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing, Knowledge Management, and Business Development in IT organizations. She has co-authored a book, . She has written more than 10 cases which are available on Ivey case publishing and Harvard case publishing site. Her case, ‘Can work at home policy hurt morale?’ has recently been published in . She has published more than 30 papers in national and international journals including , , , , , and e-mail:
Sumedha Chauhan
Assistant Professor in the area of IT and Operation Management at the School of Management, GD Goenka University. She has pursued her doctorate in the area of Information Systems from Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon. She also has experience in IT industry. Her research interests include Open Source Software, Cloud Computing, ERP, and E-governance. She has published various research papers in reputed international journals and has also presented research papers in multiple national and international conferences. e-mail:
Aparna Raman
Research Fellow in the Department of Information Management at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. She has published papers in international journals, , , and business cases in Ivey Publishing and Emerald Publishing. She has also attended and presented papers in many refereed national and international conferences (PACIS 2014). She has a Bachelors of Engineering (Computer Science), an MBA (IT and Systems), a postgraduate diploma in intellectual property rights, and an MPhil (Management). Her research interests include knowledge management; service-oriented architecture, business analytics, statistics, and IT in development. She has eight years’ experience in the information technology industry in user experience and software testing domains. e-mail:
Executive Summary Since the existence of organization, organizational knowledge has been managed more informally than in formal ways. This was done through a knowledge supporting culture, by trusting and managing the employees. This was possible due to the small size of the organizations and co-location of employees. However, increasing global competition and growth of marketplaces have created a competitive incentive among many companies to consolidate and reconcile their knowledge assets as a means of creating value that is sustainable over time. In such a scenario, a need was felt to formally manage knowledge by developing capabilities. The objective of this research article is to explore the knowledge management (KM) capabilities in large Indian organizations and their impact on knowledge effectiveness. It is based on the premise that together the perspectives of KM infrastructure and KM processes provide a useful theoretical foundation for defining important aspects of knowledge effectiveness in organizations. Knowledge management capabilities are explored with respect to infrastructure, structure, and culture. Knowledge management processes comprise creation/acquisition, storage, dissemination, and application. This research has found evidence that large Indian organizations have started realizing the importance of managing knowledge as a strategic asset. However, the approach is different in different organizations. Some organizations rely more on creating knowledge infrastructure capabilities through culture and structure while others equally emphasize the need of process approach to manage both tacit and explicit knowledge within the organization. KM effectiveness is defined in terms of improved communication, enhanced collaboration, improved employee skills, better decision-making, and improved productivity. Data collected from 156 organizations was subject to structural equation modelling. The results established that both infrastructure capabilities and process capabilities play an important role in improving KM effectiveness.
