Study Of Public Sector Organizations Of Pakistan

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Syed Saqlain Raza (Corresponding Author)

Department of Management Sciences, Al-Khair University, AJK, Pakistan

E-mail: [email protected]

Muhammad Bilal

Assistant Director (Human Resource) NEPRA, Islamabad, Pakistan

E-mail: [email protected]

Usman Ghani

Department of Management Sciences, Al-Khair University, AJK, Pakistan

E-mail: [email protected]

Kamran Rafique

Department of Management Sciences, Al-Khair University, AJK, Pakistan

E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Muhammad I Ramay

Dean Management Sciences

Department of Management Sciences Al-Khair University, AJK, Pakistan

Abstract

Today’s dynamic corporate environment stresses organization for prompt adaption of knowledge management practices. Government department are rich in tacit knowledge and culture and it is observed that Most of the government departments in Pakistan are now being shifted from conventional setup to knowledge setup. This research was conducted to explore the impact of knowledge management practices on overall performance of government department in Pakistan. 150 questionnaires were distributed for collection of data using convenience sampling technique, 117 questionnaires were received. Result shows significant association of Knowledge Management Practices with Organizational Performance. In this study, research implication and prospect direction are also discussed.

Keywords: Knowledge Management Practices, Sharing Tacit Knowledge, Use of Information Technology, Organizational Culture, Organizational Performance.

1. Introduction

The magnitude of knowledge management has arisen extensively in modern corporate environment. Organizations are trying hard to accumulate previous data to utilize it for formulation future policies for development of business strategies. It is become evident that knowledge is now being treated as most important aspect of organizational survival. Therefore, practicing knowledge management is not exclusive for private sector it is very important for public sector organizations. It is suggested that government and private organizations administer knowledge to obtain its complete benefits (Syed Ikhsan and Rowland,2004). The process of knowledge management involves in which organization uses its combined intellect to attain its set objectives. Knowledge management is a process in which employees interact with each other to share and learn knowledge. Knowledge management is a comprehensive system (acquiring, maintaining and creating knowledge) which provides an access to the knowledge that already exists within organization (Prusak, 2001; Roos and von Krogh, 1996). Government departments are rich of tacit knowledge. Nonaka & Takeuchi (1998) proposes that the conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge would enhance organizational performance. It is very difficult to copy tacit knowledge. The knowledge that employees have could be vanished if they leave the organization. Therefore it is elementary duty of management to effort for improvement in knowledge gaining, addition and its utilization within the organization (Kovačič, Bosilj Vukšić & Lončar,2006). Knowledge management practices are not adopted by government departments of Pakistan in letter and spirit. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors which influence performance of governments departments in Pakistan.

2. Research Objective

The objective of this paper is:

To determine the impact of knowledge management practices on organizational performance.

3. Literature Review

Knowledge management is a concept which came forth in the year 1990. It is used to understand the way in which knowledge is produced, utilized and shared within the organization. One of the most important objectives of knowledge management is always endeavor for delivery of correct information to right employee in time. Davenport and Prusak states that the heart of knowledge management is sharing knowledge.

3.1 Tacit Knowledge

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) explain that the personal beliefs are the dynamic human process. The involvement of human beings in dissemination knowledge in organizations can be accepted in the light of these findings. Tacit knowledge can be either knowledge embodied or knowledge embedded (Horvath, 2007). The knowledge in human minds is embodied while knowledge shown in products, processes or documents is embedded knowledge. According to (Pathirage et al., 2007) in the last few decades, an increasing interest has been observed in tacit type of knowledge. Nonaka & Takeuchi (1998) argues that the tacit knowledge create competitive advantage for organization. According to Wong & Radcliffe (2000) tacit knowledge conversion into explicit knowledge is very hard. Only human mind can understand the knowledge which is existed in any other human mind (Widen-Wulff & Suomi, 2007). Organizational knowledge is the knowledge that is shared by its employees and it can be divided in to four modes i.e socialization, externalization, combination and internalization (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Sveiby, 1997). According to Van den Brink (2003) and Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) ‘Socialization (tacit to tacit) knowledge is shared during social interaction such as story telling that enable transfer of complex tacit knowledge from an technological to another’. The tacit knowledge sharing process cannot be seen or observed (Ryu et al..,2003). Chiu et al (2006) defines that the quality of shared knowledge depends upon its relevancy, easy standing, accuracy, completeness, reliability and timing.

3.2 Use of Information Technology

Information technology can be used as a tool to facilitate the flow of information and knowledge sharing in organization (Stoddart, 2001). Knowledge transferring tool of technology are video conferencing, newsgroup, email and voicemail etc. Much innovative software has been made to empower knowledge sharing (Lee & Al-Hawamdeh, 2002). Technology plays a very important role in developing knowledge management in organizations (Andersson, 2000). In rising organizational theory technology has always been treated as main variable (Orlikowski, 1992) and "The fundamental requirement of knowledge sharing has always been technology" (Lee & Al-Hawamdeh, 2002). According to Stoddart (2001) the process of knowledge management involves three main steps: organizational education, data management and information technology. Exercising information technology tool is very supportive here. Application of I.T can greatly effect the organizational performance (AlMashari, M., Ziari, M. & AlAthari, A. (2002). Fountain (2001) states that information technology has great ability to effects the coordination and communication functions of organization both internally and externally. In today’s modern era of technology knowledge is being controlled with the help of computers. This cause and effect relationship between knowledge and technology has result in development of computers (Binz-Scharf, 2003). Without proper information technology infrastructure it is almost impossible for organizations to share knowledge within or outside the organization (Hasanali, 2002).

3.3 Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is those shared assumptions which are copied by its employee during their interaction within or with outer word from time to time to overcome their problem (Park, Ribiere and Chulte, 2004). Every organization has its own culture that progressively grows over the time (Al-Alawi et al., 2007). Issa and Uadda (2008) explain that trust among coworkers is an important cultural element for successful knowledge management. The employees are only willing to share knowledge if they have trust the recipient (Connelly and Kelloway, 2002). Sanchez, (2004) describe that the organizational culture is composed of business strategy, people, processes, and structure. Organization’s internal culture is very important for developing knowledge management system (Gumbley, 1998, p.175). Knowledge management practices can be developed in any organizations only when they have supportive organizational culture (Abass et al., 2011). The major hurdle in implementing knowledge management successfully is organizational culture (Rezugi, 2007, p. 171; Rusanow, 2003, p. 208). In many past studies explains that the trust among employees is very necessary in organizational culture, which is a strong factor of sharing knowledge (Al-Alwai et al., 2007; Andrews and Delahay, 2000). According to Bakker et al., (2006) when employees trust each other they share more knowledge. If the trust level between employees is low they will not share knowledge (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). Kerr and Clegg (2007) states that leaders facilitates knowledgeable employees to share knowledge. So they act as a role model by providing incentive to knowledge workers to disseminate knowledge with the organization. Rewards and performance appraisal can promote knowledge sharing. The top management support can play a vital role in this regard (Ling et al., 2009). Organization’s culture is massive obstruction while implementing KM in any organization. So if the culture is not supportive toward KM then it will be very difficult to create knowledge management culture in the organization. Walczak (2005) stated that the organizational culture can alleviate, maintain, and persuade the sharing, utilization and making of knowledge within the organization.

3.4 Organizational Performance

Zack, McKeen and Singh (2009) found that knowledge management is associated with organizational performance. There is a dire need to develop a culture in organizations that encourages employees to participate in knowledge sharing activities (Tseng, 2010). Politis (2002) define that organizational performance is the supreme concern for any researcher. Implementation of knowledge management practices in government departments is a subject which is completely being neglected by management and no sincere efforts have been made so far to its application within the organization to enhance performance.

4. Problem Statement

Do knowledge management practices have any impact on organizational performance?

5. Research Question

What is the overall impact of knowledge management practices (sharing tacit knowledge, use of information technology & organizational culture) have on the organizational performance?

6. Hypothesis

H1: Knowledge Management Practices have significant impact on Organizational Performance.

Figure-1

Theoretical Framework

Organizational Performance

Knowledge Management Practices

Sharing Tacit Knowledge

Use of Information Technology

Organizational Culture

6. Methodology

To explore the impact of knowledge management practices on organizational performance of government department of Pakistan. Questionnaire method was adopted to collect responses from different government department in Islamabad and Wah Cantt. 117 questionnaires were received out of 150. The response rate was 78%.

7. Procedure

The thirty (30) questionnaires were distributed personally among the employees of various hierarchical levels. Non probability random sampling technique (convenient random sampling) was used to collect required information. Survey ensures confidentiality of responses. First part of the questionnaire was about the personal information of the respondent’s i.e age, gender, highest level of education, cadre, income level and total number of service in organization. Second part incorporate with the questions regarding sharing tacit knowledge, use of information technology & organizational culture. A five point likert scale was used to compute the replies of the respondents.

8. Measures

The items of sharing knowledge were adapted from Mckinney et al. (2002) and DeLone and MCLean (2003). The items to measure use of information technology & organizational culture were adapted from the study of Rasul et al. (2008). The participant responded to each item on five point scale ranging from 1.Strongly Disagree to 5. Strongly Agree.

9. Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

The result of this part shows that the majority of the respondents were male (94%). Most of the respondents were of age group of 41 or above (29.1%) followed by age bracket of 26-30 (26.5%) & 31-35 (24.8%). The highest level of education was Master (54%) and most of them were from officer cadre (62%) having 10 year of service in the organization (41%). The most of respondents were on income level of 50,000 and above (36.8%). The detailed analysis is given in table1.

Table-1

Measure

Items

Frequency

Percentage

Age

 

 

 

 

21 to 25

5

4.3

26 to 30

31

26.5

31 to 35

29

24.8

36 to 40

18

15.4

41+

34

29.1

Gender

 

Male

110

94.0

Female

7

6.0

Highest Level of Education

 

 

Bachelors

50

42.7

Masters

54

46.2

MS/M.Phill

13

11.1

Cadre

 

 

Officer

62

53.0

Staff

53

45.3

Other

2

1.7

Income Level

 

 

 

 

11,000 to 20,000

11

9.4

21,000 to 30,000

29

24.8

31,000 to 40,000

16

13.7

41,000 to 50,000

18

15.4

50,000+

43

36.8

Years in this Organization

 

 

 

Less than a year

12

10.3

1 to 5 year

37

31.6

6 to 10 years

20

17.1

10+

48

41.0

10. Analysis and Discussion

Several statistical tests were applied to find out the impact of knowledge management on organizational performance of government departments in Pakistan. Cronbach Alpha Coefficient value shown in table-2. To verify hypothesis and to investigate possible association among independent and dependent variable correlation and regression test were applied on data. SPSS 16 was used for analysis of collected data.

Table-2

Variables

Alpha

Organizational Performance

.776

Knowledge Management Practices

.823

Table-3

Correlations

OP

KMPP

OP

Pearson Correlation

1

.699**

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

N

117

117

KMPP

Pearson Correlation

.699**

1

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

N

117

117

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 3 shows that knowledge management practices are significantly positively correlated with organizational performance 0.699 value shows strong correlation. This means that knowledge management practices have strong impact on organizational performance of government department in Pakistan.

Table-4

Model Summary

Model

R

R Square

Adjusted R Square

Std. Error of the Estimate

1

.699a

.489

.485

3.70984

a. Predictors: (Constant), KMP

ANOVAb

Model

Sum of Squares

df

Mean Square

F

Sig.

1

Regression

1515.078

1

1515.078

110.084

.000a

Residual

1582.734

115

13.763

Total

3097.812

116

a. Predictors: (Constant), KMP

b. Dependent Variable: OP

Result of regression analysis shown in table-4 explains that 48.5% variation in organizational performance is to knowledge management practices. Moreover it transpired from the regression results that one percent change in knowledge management practices brings 31% change in organizational performance of governments departments of Pakistan.

Coefficients a

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

t

Sig.

B

Std. Error

Beta

1

(Constant)

-5.169

2.541

-2.034

.044

KMP

.310

.030

.699

10.492

.000

a. Dependent Variable: OP

11. Implications

In this paper we have argued that knowledge management helps organizations to improve performance. For its implication it is necessary for government departments;

to foster the mechanism of sharing tacit knowledge

Utilize information technology tools to achieve desired goals.

Management in government department should develop a culture which may absorbs knowledge management practices.

Barriers must be removed in internal communication systems and utilization of information technology tools.

12. Limitations and Future Indications

There are certain limitations of the study;

The sample size selected for this research work is from the government departments in Islamabad/wah cantt.

The Pay structure of under researched departments was not the same.

For more authentic results research may be carried out in the purely government sector having same pay structure.