Reconciling the impact of knowledge management processes on knowledge worker productivity

Abstract

Knowledge management has been a proven tool to foster organizational performance, innovations, and individual knowledge workers’ productivity. A stream of empirical studies has demonstrated with contradictory results that each single organizational knowledge management process – knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and utilization – can enhance the knowledge workers’ productivity in isolation. In contrast, our study argues with the support of Nonaka’s theory and alignment theory that knowledge utilization is the only frontline and primary knowledge management process which can enhance knowledge workers’ productivity while other knowledge management processes (knowledge creation and knowledge sharing) support and supplement each other as well as improve knowledge utilization. This means that shared and created knowledge will not enhance the productivity of knowledge workers until organizations strive for knowledge utilization. This study used data collected from 336 knowledge workers in the Telecom industry of Pakistan and examined it using partial least squares modelling. The findings indicated that knowledge utilization is the sole frontline and primary knowledge management to enhance the productivity of knowledge workers. Hence, knowledge utilization can only influence productivity indirectly by increasing the utilization of knowledge created and/or shared.