Studies On The Relationships Between Knowledge Management And Organizational Performances In Enterprises

Since the OECD put forward to "economy on the basis of knowledge", Knowledge management (KM) has become a popular research field. But there was not a suitable tool for measuring KM.. So one task of this study's was to explore the structure of KM, and then to develop a questionnaire about it. Referring to the viewpoints of tech school and behavioral school, we researched the effects of IT skills and organizational culture on KM respectively. Meanwhile, this study investigated the relationships between KM and organizational performances, the relationships between the IT skills and the organizational culture, the mediate effect of KM between IT skills and organizational performances as well as the mediate effect of KM between organizational culture and organizational performances.The results showed:(1) There were four dimensions in KM: acquiring knowledge, using knowledge, creating knowledge and diffusing knowledge.(2) The state of KM was not very well in our country, about which acquiring knowledge and using knowledge were better than creating knowledge and diffusing knowledge; the gaps of KM levels among companies were large, about which the biggest was diffusing knowledge and the smallest was using knowledge.(3) There were some differences in KM and its each dimension among the companies with different sizes and ages. As the sizes and ages increased, KM was implemented better; there were obvious differences in using knowledge among individuals of different ages, about which the main group active in KM distributed from 29 to 45 years old; there was obvious differences in creating knowledge among different positions. The scores of upper managers were much higher than the common staffs and middle managers, and the scores of the latter is the lowest.(4) IT skills and organizational culture determined the level of KM. The effects of IT skills on acquiring knowledge and using knowledge were more obvious thanthat on creating knowledge and diffusing knowledge. The organizational supports and group cooperation affected KM and its each dimension obviously. Self-role identity did not affect creating knowledge obviously, so did the organizational belief identity on diffusing knowledge.(5) KM could predict the organizational performances. Besides of diffusing knowledge, acquiring Knowledge, using knowledge and creating knowledge affected organizational performances obviously.(6) There was a mediate effect of KM between IT skills and organizational performances. So was KM between organizational culture and organizational performances.