The purpose of this study is to understand on the operational status of knowledge management through case study on local governments, to analyze factors influencing knowledge management activities through empirical research, and to propose policy dire...
The purpose of this study is to understand on the operational status of knowledge management through case study on local governments, to analyze factors influencing knowledge management activities through empirical research, and to propose policy directions. Moreover, the author of this study is to categorize the agencies as the subjects into those whose knowledge management was introduced within three years to date (in introduction stage) and those whose knowledge management was introduced more than three years ago (in fixation stage), to understand the influencing power of each factor through comparative researches by the durations of introduction of knowledge management, and to propose differentiated strategies and programs of management.
In this study, factors that may influence knowledge management activities within the organizations of administrative agencies were strategic, management, relational, and information-technology(IT) factors, in which factors having similar traits were categorized through literature review. As for main sub-variables, there were ① visions, aims, and leadership of the head of each agency for strategic factors, ② learning organization, assessment and reward system for management factors, ③ mutual reliability, openness of communication, human networks inside and outside of organizations for relational factors, and ④ indicators that may be used for assessing user-friendly convenience and superiority of functions for IT factors. For dependent variables, knowledge creation, knowledge accumulation
/sharing, and knowledge utilization were selected as three processes that may affect directly knowledge utilization through knowledge management system.
As a result of overall regression analysis, knowledge creation was affected by management factors, relational factors, and strategic factors (in order), but was insignificantly affected by IT factors. As for knowledge accumulation/sharing, management factors were analyzed to be the greatest factor while the effects of strategic factors were insignificant. For knowledge utilization, all the factors were shown to be significant, and in particular, relational factors were greatest among the four factors. This result indicates that, for knowledge utilization, knowledge management activities may be activated when human networks inside and outside of organizations are expanded through mutual reliability and free communication.
In general, agencies whose knowledge management was introduced within three years were most affected by relational and management factors, while those whose knowledge management was introduced more than three years ago were most affected by IT and relational factors. As for the agencies in an early stage of introduction (within three years), relational, strategic, and management factors (in order) influenced knowledge creation, while management, relational, and IT factors (in order) affected knowledge accumulation/sharing. However, only IT factors significantly was revealed to affect knowledge utilization. For the agencies whose knowledge management was introduced more than three years ago, management, relational, and IT factors (in order) affected knowledge creation, while IT, relational, and management factors (in order) influenced knowledge accumulation/sharing. knowledge utilization was significantly influenced by all the factors, whose significance are relational, IT, management, and strategic factors, in order.