Knowledge management influence on government organisations competitiveness

Abstract

The need for government organizations to become competitive is growing with the huge instability in the economy. In parallel, Knowledge Management (KM) has been rapidly growing in the past decade as a source of influence on organisational development practices. Furthermore, the past decade research approaches largely failed to show the importance of KM initiatives in creating synergy with other initiatives to an extent that would lead towards organizational competitiveness. This study address whether KM holistically influences the different organisational development practices, specifically in the context of the government sector. To ascertain the relationships between KM and four prevalent organisational development practices identified in the literature and increasingly used in practice, a quantitative survey approach was undertaken using a series of researcher-developed scales. Based on the literature review, Organisational Excellence (OE), Organisational Learning (OL), Organisational Innovation (OI) and Organisational Competitiveness (OC) were identified to be the most repeated relations with KM. A conceptual framework was designed to test the concept of the holistic influence of KM on the four identified organisational development practices. A total of 625 valid responses were collected from top and middle management from 54 government organizations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The model was statistically tested according to the research hypotheses by regression analysis then Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Results reveal strong and significant correlations amongst the five prevalent organisational development practices. Even though the holistic influence of the model could not be confirmed, findings show positive KM influence on the remaining organisational development practices, thus KM is an essential factor for government organisations. Besides illustrating KM as an important source of influence, this research establishes a new direction that helps to integrate all governmental organisations initiatives in relevance to organisation development practices leading to better competitiveness. The study makes a novel contribution since it increases the probability of a holistic approach model that brings support for the decision makers to enhance the overall government organizations competitiveness. The scale developed for the model tested can be generalised and used as a self assessment tool for organisational practices in KE. This work sets a baseline for KM practices in the Government of Bahrain and similar GCC Governments and can act as a reference for researchers on KM and competitiveness in the emerging economies countries. Nevertheless, the model need to be further investigated in future research to explore the missing variables in this model to make it more fit. Therefore, the concept of holistic model needs to be further subject to empirical investigations to explore its viability. The major limitation of this research is it been addressed only in the government sector and in one country.