Factors affecting employees' readiness for knowledge management

Knowledge plays a critical role in achieving organization strategic objectives and gaining competitive advantage; thus, knowledge like other organizational resources needs to be managed. However, knowledge management (KM) often lacks adequate infrastructure and necessary requirements that makes its implementation difficult and costly. It is argued that the first step to accommodate a KM strategy is to assess organizational readiness that involves identifying factors that affect it. This research is conducted in a public organization and assesses employees’ readiness to implement KM initiatives. It examines the impact of individual, context, content and process variables on commitment and pessimism prior to KM implementation. To measure these variables, a questionnaire was distributed among staff members of a large municipality, using stratified random sampling. Comparison of means, correlation analysis and the hierarchical regression analysis were performed to test the study hypotheses. Research findings revealed that individual variables are related to pessimism and affective, continuous and normative commitment toward KM. However, while context variables and process variables affect pessimism and affective commitment, the content variables affect commitment to KM. Furthermore, only individual variables, including positive and negative affects, efficacy and innovativeness affect pessimism and the three dimensions of commitment toward KM. Given the importance of individual variables on the employees’ attitudes toward KM strategy, HR policies and practices need to play a central role in facilitating effective KM programs. They should promote active participation, open communication and organizational and management supports.