Organizational culture and knowledge management processes: case study in a public university
VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems
ISSN: 2059-5891
Article publication date: 22 January 2019
Issue publication date: 5 March 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine knowledge management interrelationships in higher education institutions and to assess the impact of the university’s culture on knowledge management processes: creation, dissemination, exchange and application.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model establishes the relationships between organizational culture (OC) and knowledge management processes in a single framework. The study used the organizational culture assessment instrument to determine the culture type and used structural equation modeling to assess the underlying relationships between knowledge management process and OC.
Findings
The results of the factor analysis used in this study suggest that adhocracy organizational culture, in which an organization is characterized by emphasis on individual initiative and employee empowerment, may not necessarily affect all knowledge management processes equally. In particular, an organization’s culture principally influences the knowledge creation process, followed by knowledge exchange, in a public university setting.
Originality/value
The study provides a comprehensive outlook on the effect of adhocracy culture in higher education on the knowledge management process through the lens of one cultural context. In addition, this is the first study that explores the OC effect on knowledge management process in a Saudi public university.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This Project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, under grant no. (G-566-245-37). The authors, therefore, acknowledge with thanks DSR technical and financial support.
Citation
Adeinat, I.M. and Abdulfatah, F.H. (2019), "Organizational culture and knowledge management processes: case study in a public university", VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 35-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-05-2018-0041
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited