This study is to investigate the effect of knowledge management on organizational performance which is recently emphasized by companies and public institutions in Korea.
The construct of influence factors are derived through previous researches. Know...
This study is to investigate the effect of knowledge management on organizational performance which is recently emphasized by companies and public institutions in Korea.
The construct of influence factors are derived through previous researches. Knowledge creation and knowledge sharing are focused among knowledge activities in this study. Knowledge creation is defined as useful new knowledge suggestion which is helpful for an individual or a group to achieve his/her objective. Knowledge sharing is defined as intention or behavior for an individual or a group to open his/her knowledge to others within an organization and to accept it.
This study verified three hypothesis based on the conceptual definition and previous researches as follows: First, the study tested how antecedents ,which influence on knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, affect practically. Second, the study tested whether knowledge creation behavior and knowledge sharing behavior have a positive effect on organizational performance. Third, the study tested how knowledge creation and knowledge sharing mediate the relation between each antecedent and performance.
Considering the importance of analysis level, the analysis has been done at the set of individual and group level together in this study, while the analysis in previous researches on knowledge management was done at each individual level such as single group or individual organization level respectively,
The research findings by the analysis in this empirical study are summarized as follows: first, individual creativeness, support from CEO, and group compensation among antecedents of knowledge creation behavior, show positive effects on individual and group knowledge creation behavior.
Second, trust toward co-workers, trust between co-workers, open communication, group compensation among knowledge sharing effect factors, show positive effects on the intention of knowledge sharing at individual level. However, trust toward co-workers, trust between co-workers, open communication show positive effects on the intention of knowledge sharing at group level.
Third, the finding through the hypothesis test on knowledge creation activities, shows that knowledge creation behavior at the individual level have a positive effect on organizational performance except group performance. Knowledge creation behavior at the group level has a positive effect on all organization performance-individual performance, individual innovative behavior, group performance and group innovative behavior.
On the contrary, knowledge sharing intention at individual level has a positive effect on both individual performance and individual innovative behavior, and knowledge sharing intention at group level has a positive effect on group performance only. Such results suggest that knowledge creation behavior makes influence on organization performance without any relation to individual or group level. On the contrary, knowledge sharing intention and level are differently applied depending on the individual or the group level.
Forth, the finding through the hypothesis test on whether knowledge activities mediate between effect factors and organization performance, shows that knowledge creation activities at the individual and group level mediate the relation between organization performance and antecedents such as internal motivation, individual creativeness, support from CEO, innovative culture. The finding also shows that knowledge sharing intention and level alternatively mediate the relation between organization performance and antecedents such as trust toward co-workers, trust between co-workers, support from CEO, innovative culture.
At last, theoretical and practical implication and the direction of future study are suggested based on results from empirical analysis in this study.