Contribution of knowledge management practices in generating a corporate culture of innovation

Abstract

Organisations in all spheres of industries are facing constant change and need to be innovative to carve out a competitive market share. Knowledge is universally recognised as the organisation’s most valuable asset and strategic resource. The competitive business environment is impelling organisations to utilise and strengthen their knowledge capital in order to manage these changes.

The relationship between knowledge management and innovation is not well understood and there is a need to explicitly examine this relationship explicitly. The objective of this study is to focus on the internal environment of listed companies in South Africa and determine to what extent knowledge management practices can contribute to an organisational culture of innovation and whether or not these practices are antecedents to innovative behaviour by knowledge workers

Senior members in these companies were contacted by email and requested to access a questionnaire that was available via a Web address and complete the questionnaire. All completed questionnaires were analysed, using Item analysis, multiple regression and discriminant analysis.

Results show that knowledge management practices: the organisation's science and technology human capital profile and the organisation is flexible and opportunistic are important predictors of innovativeness in organisations that are perceived to have an organisational culture of innovation.