A Contingency Approach to Knowledge Management

Abstract

A contingency perspective of knowledge management recognises the need for a fit between knowledge management solutions (KMS) and decision making contexts which they support. In order to determine the best fit, a field survey was carried out to investigate the impact of two different types of KMS (technical and social) on decision makers' behaviour and performance in different decision contexts (simple and complex). The results provide partial support for the contingency view. As expected, the study identified social KMS as the best fit for complex contexts, based on subjects' superior performance from comparable adoption of both KMS. In contrast, the study identified that both KMS were an equally good fit for simple contexts, based on similar levels of subjects' performance, but social KMS was preferred in terms of adoption. These findings contribute to much needed empirical evidence for research and provide useful guidance for practice. However, their limitations warrant further study.

Antecedents and consequences of knowledge management systems usage in Jordanian banking sector

“…Prior studies concluded with the important role for KMS usage in supporting the performance or effectiveness of decision‐making (Abdelrahman, ; Chuang et al, ; Gressel, ). The usage of KMS can maximize the possibilities to use the right knowledge to make the right decision (Handzic et al, ). Kuo and Lee () argued that if KMS users are supported with the appropriate knowledge tools by which they can retrieve the needed up‐to‐date information or knowledge to serve their daily working tasks and decision‐making purposes, then they are more likely to use it.…”

“…Several researchers support the importance of knowledge management systems (KMS) in making superior decisions compared with traditional techniques (Abdelrahman, ; Nattapol, Peter, & Laddawan, ; Simon, ). A decision maker's ability to successfully link the right knowledge with the right decision is highly affected by actual usage of KMS (Handzic, Ozlen, & Durmic, ).…”

A Knowledge-Based Framework for Service Management

“…Another factor is the complexity of the new context (as discussed by Handzic et al, 2016) in which knowledge is to be reused for service delivery. The advantage of exploring this is an "opportunity for seamless integration between knowledge management and the business environment", (Handzic et al, 2016:31).…”

“…Indeed organisations must be aware that from the perspective of complexity theory, "the difficulty of the decision situation is expected to increase with the objective and/or perceived complexity due to decision task, environment and/or decision maker", (Handzic et al, 2016: 34, Snowden 2004). The least complex situation involves existing knowledge being re-used 'as-is' without any modification i.e.…”

“…The least complex situation involves existing knowledge being re-used 'as-is' without any modification i.e. there is an existing standard service procedure to the current client's service requirement, or low task complexity, as discussed by Handzic et al, (2016). The knowledge to be re-used can be both tacit and explicit.…”