The Relationships among Human Resource Management Practices, Organizational Commitment, and Knowledge Management Processes: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Human resources and knowledge management are considered to be one of the most important factors within organizations that help them to achieve a competitive advantage. However, organizations should take care of the human factor and increase their commitment within organizations to take advantage of the knowledge within them. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between human resources management practices and organizational commitment, on the one hand, and their relationship with knowledge management process, on the other hand. Consultancy firms operating in Jordan were used as the main sample of this study. A random sample was selected where 220 questionnaires were distributed to such firms. Only 207 questionnaires were submitted back with a response rate of 52%. A theoretical model was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the SEM analysis indicated that human resources practices (recruitment methods, training and development, performance appraisals, and reward systems) have a significant influence on organizational commitment (affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment). Finally, the study did not find a direct relationship between human resource (HR) practices and knowledge management (KM) processes (knowledge acquisition, knowledge distribution, knowledge interpretation, and organizational memory). However, causal links were founded between human resource practices and organizational commitment, on the one hand, and organizational commitment and knowledge management processes, on the other hand.