A Simulation Based Exploration into the Effectiveness of It-enabled Knowledge Management Initiatives

As organizations recognize their knowledge as a source of competitive advantage, they are increasingly investing in Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives in an attempt to realize both firmand operationallevel benefits. However, many KM initiatives fail to yield the desired outcomes due to our lack of understanding of the antecedents to successful KM. Prior studies have established that organizations’ cultural values are one of the key enablers of KM. This study investigates the relationship between the success of KM initiatives and those aspects of organizational culture that govern the knowledge-seeking and knowledge-sharing propensities of the organization’s members. We examine the impacts of these propensities on the effectiveness of a KM initiative in terms of its impact on one measure of organizational performance. We develop a conceptual model of the organization where performance depends on the effectiveness of knowledge reuse within the organization. Numerical simulations are employed to gain insights into the relationship between the knowledge-sharing propensities of the organization’s employees and the success of a KM initiative. Our results show that the effectiveness of a KM initiative is determined to a greater extent by the employees’ predispositions towards knowledge seeking than their predisposition towards knowledge sharing. When the employees exhibit moderate knowledge seeking and sharing propensities, the KMS has a greater positive impact of their collective performance than when the employees exhibit either low or high propensities for knowledge seeking and sharing. We find that organizations whose employees are highly predisposed towards both knowledge sharing and seeking experience higher performance gains when the KM initiative also institutes KM processes that embed knowledge seeking activities into the employees’ work routines. Based on our findings, we present guidelines for future research and implication for practitioners.