Exploring the Influence of Ethical Norms on Organizaional Knowledge Management: An Ethical Climate Perspective

Since 1990, knowledge management has been developed and adopted as an essential strategy to foster the creation as well as utilization of organizational intellectual resources. Organizational intellectual capital is derived both individually and collectively from the process to create, store, share, acquire and apply the personal and organizational knowledge. Numerous studies have proposed that organizational culture is essential to support organizational knowledge management activities and effectiveness. However, many organizations put much emphasis on the individuals’ knowledge contribution and subsequent performance, neglecting the importance of brainstorming or contribution of knowledge sharing with others. In addition, some organizations only focus on the development of public goods, despite the concerns of individuals’ self-interest or possible risk. The only single aspect of individual or collective approach toward knowledge management will inevitably lead to the ethical conflicts in the organization. The purpose of this study intends to examine the ethical norms within an organization and its possible influence on the members’ evaluation, satisfaction, engagement, and job performance about the organizational knowledge management process. The research constructs are identified and measuring items will be developed on the basis of literature review. The method to carry out this study will utilize survey methodology. Meanwhile, statistical analysis will also be conducted to test our hypothesized relationships between constructs.