The Role of Knowledge Systems in Supporting Environmental Decision Making Systems

The central and increasingly contentious roles of modern technology in companies have given rise to a plethora of scientific and practical controversies over the production processes. This research aims to harness the concept of knowledge systems as an essential element in the dissemination of an organisation's knowledge to support planning, analysis and environmental decision-making systems that could improve some types of environmental systems. This is because when the companies effectively gain leverage of knowledge systems this assists with rapid decision-making with fewer oversights or errors. This will enhance the environmental performance. A conceptual model based on the literature review and consultations with knowledge workers is developed. Also, a pilot study with collaborating organisations which are active in manufacturing in Iraq was conducted to validate the conceptual model and facilitate exploratory investigation regarding the relationships. The surveys were administered on random samples within these firms. The study however identified high correlation between knowledge systems and environmental performance. Also, a computer based relationship between environmental decision-making systems and environmental performance was developed. Accordingly, the research limitations/ implications have focused on exploring the perceptual impacts of knowledge systems in supporting environmental decision-making systems. The clarification of outcomes must be taken with cautious. Accordingly, this paper discusses the role of knowledge systems; namely, environmental systems data mining in knowledge systems for environmental applications. Therefore, the data analysis in this research shows the relationship between this research and some published work within this field. The results analysis has confirmed that knowledge systems play a fundamental role in encouraging and improving the exchange of experience. This leads to improving creativity and performance and the removing of barriers and obstacles. Where tensions exist in organisations, (e.g. between production and environment), they must be solved by top management and by push and pull processes of knowledge. Consequently, the conceptual model in this research has been applicable to the companies' experiences. This is because the model has identified gaps and inadequacies in their KSs and processes. It has taken into account both formal and informal knowledge transfer methods. Thereby, in a manufacturing context KSs can include regular updates on the progress of the company at a company board level, as well as other intra- company reporting systems at all levels of the management hierarchy.