Diffusion of knowledge management systems: mission definitely possible

Citation

Sankaran, S. and Kouzmin, A. (2005), "Diffusion of knowledge management systems: mission definitely possible", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 24 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd.2005.02624daa.001

Diffusion of knowledge management systems: mission definitely possible

Diffusion of knowledge management systems: mission definitely possible

About the Guest Editors Professor Shankar Sankaran has over 30 years of management experience in Asia, the Middle East and Australia. He was a director of a Japanese multinational in Singapore and managed major projects for them. As an associate professor of Management at Southern Cross University in Australia he teaches Knowledge Management and Information Systems in MBA programmes in the Asia-Pacific Region. He supervises doctoral students researching into knowledge management applications and promotes the use of action research in business. He has published and presented papers in conferences and academic journals and is currently researching into organizational cultural barriers to implementing knowledge management. E-mail: SSankaran@scu.edu.au

Professor Alexander Kouzmin (since April 2003) holds a Chair in Management at Southern Cross University. He is also, currently, adjunct professor in the School of Management at the University of South Australia and visiting professor at the Plymouth Business School. Previously, he held the chair in Organizational Behaviour at the Cranfield School of Management (August 2000-January 2003). Since 1994, he has been listed with Who's Who in Australia and, since 2000, with The International Who's Who in Management Sciences. He has published more than 280 research papers and book chapters, and eight books, in research interests which include organizational design/governance; IS/IT vulnerabilities; comparative and cross-cultural management; organizational change and globalization; and crisis management. He is a founding co-editor of Blackwell's International Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, published quarterly since March 1993. E-mail: akouzmin@scu.edu.au

As a result of heightened competition in the marketplace and the shift from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, companies are looking more and more at gaining competitive advantage through managing and maximizing their most valuable asset – knowledge. Although knowledge and knowledge management (KM) are not new concepts, knowledge management systems (KMSs), which involve the application of IT systems and other organizational resources to manage knowledge strategically in a more effective and systematic way, are a relatively recent phenomenon. While a KMS (or some version of it) is widely applied in organizations, the topic has not been well explored by researchers and scholars in an empirical way. Most of the literature centres on general principles of KMSs, cases of successes and failures of KM project applications and/or factors of successes and/or failures in a handful of leading organizations. There is a scarcity of empirical studies of KMSs, especially in the area of their adoption and diffusion.

This special issue of the Journal of Management Development investigates the factors impacting on the diffusion of KMSs. Although this research is of interest to other disciplines, no attempt has been made to synthesize this material as it relates to KMSs. There is some literature on the factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of various technologies, but there is none on the factors for KMS adoption and diffusion.

With a background in the high-level factors of adoption and diffusion of generic technologies, Jun Xu and Mohammed Quaddus investigate the factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of KMSs in the Australian context. The primary focus of this research centres on the following questions:

1. 1.

   What are the factors that influence KMS adoption and diffusion in Australian organizations?

2. 2.

   What must be done to diffuse KMSs successfully?

The authors adopt a mixed methodology approach. Their research was carried out in three stages: field study, pilot survey and national survey (of the top 1,500 companies). In the first stage, a comprehensive model of KMS diffusion in organizations was produced through a combination of literature review and qualitative field study. Six companies took part in this phase, which resulted in eight interviews with key person(s) in the companies. The interviews were transcribed by the researchers and the contents were analysed using a structured process. The content analysis and further refinement resulted in 16 factors and 72 unique variables. Company-specific individual diffusion models were first developed, which were then combined to develop a comprehensive KMS diffusion model. This model is unique in the sense that it has been developed based on the data obtained from both case studies and the literature; many factors and variables are also different and very specific to KMS diffusion. Another significant contribution is that the KMS adoption and diffusion model has incorporated external factors, perceptions, and diffusion into one model. The paper titled “From rhetoric towards a model of practical knowledge management systems” reports the results of the first phase of their study.

In the second stage, a questionnaire was developed based on the combined model. A total of 12 West Australian companies were randomly selected for the pilot study. The questionnaire was distributed to 125 functional and senior-level managers in these companies and 25 valid responses were received. The results of the pilot survey proved the effectiveness of the questionnaire. Information about the pilot study can be found in the paper titled “Exploring the perceptions of knowledge management systems”.

Finally, the data of the study were collected through surveying the top 1,500 organizations (based on revenue) in Australia. The questionnaires were distributed to 1,500 managers in those companies, who appeared to be most relevant to the study. There were 285 valid responses. The data of the national survey were analysed through structural equation modelling, using LISREL, which resulted in a valid KMS adoption and diffusion model. The results of the national survey showed that the three most significant perception-related variables in the KMS adoption/diffusion process are: usefulness, user-friendliness and voluntariness. Earlier studies in innovation adoption and diffusion have used regression in data analysis. This research used the structural equation modelling approach, which is able to test both the measurement and the structural relationships simultaneously. The measurement parts of the model were first tested, separately (for example, “perceived usefulness”), and replaced by composite variables. Then the structural model of composite variables was tested. The details of this phase of the study can be found in the paper titled “Adoption and diffusion of knowledge management systems: an Australian survey”.

One of the most important findings is the identification of the six stages of the KMS diffusion process. In prior studies, researchers have presented various stages in their models of innovation diffusion. But this study demonstrates a new stage of diffusion – organic growth, which reflects the individual learning and use of the KMS. It also highlights the need for pilot implementation before organizational implementation. The KMS adoption and diffusion model shows the detailed stages of KMS diffusion from “initiation” to “sustained use”. The study also provides an empirical test of the sequence of stages in the diffusion process. The results show that all the hypotheses related to the sequence of steps in the KMS diffusion process are significant. This is an important and significant finding. It clearly demonstrates how KMS adoption and diffusion should be planned in Australian organizations. The paper, “A six-stage model for the effective diffusion of knowledge management systems” presents a six-stage model of the KMS diffusion process and details of the empirical tests of the sequence of stages in KMS diffusion in Australia.

The results of the survey add value to the literature on KM. Also, the results provide practical suggestions to companies that are embarking on the adoption and diffusion of a KMS. The results of this research can help organizations currently practising KM or planning to embark on a KMS by enhancing their understanding of the KMS and providing them with a checklist of the important variables in the KMS adoption and diffusion model. The checklist can help them carry out an internal audit to find out how they fare in terms of these variables. The results of this research also provide suggestions and guidelines on successfully implementing KMSs in organizations.

A detailed discussion on the contribution to the literature and managerial implications of the research can be found in the paper titled “A reality-based guide to KMS diffusion”.

Finally, even though the research by Jun Xu and Mohammed Quaddus was conducted within Australian organizations, results are applicable to different organizations in various countries across the globe because of the generic approach undertaken.

Shankar Sankaran and Alexander KouzminSouthern Cross University, Tweed Heads, NSW, Australia