The Impact of Knowledge Management Strategies on Organizational Performance :

Many organizations have recognized that knowledge is the most important resource in today's economy. Propelled by the resource-and knowledge-based views of the firm, organizations are actively embracing knowledge management with the expectation of acquiring and maintaining high levels of organizational performance. However, because knowledge management as a formal practice is still in its infancy and not yet well understood, many organizations are unable to attain expected performance. To help organizations, management consultants and academicians are proposing various knowledge management strategies. Despite the proliferation of strategies, to date, there have been little or no large-scale empirical studies to demonstrate the relationship between various knowledge management strategies and organizational performance. With limited resources at their disposals, organizations need to know and implement only those strategies that are more beneficial to them. This paper presents the first part of our efforts to study the relationships between knowledge management strategies and organizational performance. We discuss the strategies available to organizations, and elaborate on a model for a n empirical test of Michael Earl's Taxonomy of knowledge management strategies. Earl's taxonomy has been selected because it encompasses most of the other strategies we identified in the literature. Our model hypothesizes how elements of the taxonomy and a number of organizational-and environmental-related factors relate to organizational performance. Understanding these relationships is essential for managers if they hope to improve performance through knowledge management.