The Relationship between Knowledge Management, Organizational Trust, Creativity and Innovation - Report Example

The Relationship between Knowledge Management, Organizational Trust, Creativity and Innovation and University name City, State Date Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summery 4 2.0 Introduction 5 3.0 Knowledge Management Behaviors 6 3.1 Knowledge Management 6 3.2 Knowledge Acquisition 6 3.3 Knowledge Dissemination 7 3.4 Responsive Knowledge 8 4.0 The Elements of Interpersonal Trust at Work 8 4.1 Trust and Faith in Peers 8 4.2 Faith in Leadership 8 5.0 Knowledge Responsiveness within the Organization 9 5.1 Creativity and Innovation 9 5.2 Productivity 9 6.0 Hypothesis 10 7.0 Methods 10 7.1 Participants 10 7.2 Methods of collecting data 10 7.3 Procedure 11 7.4 Results 11 7.2 Challenges 12 8.0 Conclusion 12 9.0 Time Management 13 Bibliography 14 Appendices 15 1.0 Executive Summery Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology (ESMA) Company is a federal UAE authority that was established by UAE Federal Law 28, 2001 as the sole standardisation body in the UAE. The aim of ESMA is to formulate and issue national UAE standards as well as adopting international standards. ESMA protects the consumers, the environment, the national market, and strengthens the national economy. ESMA is also responsible for issuing certificates of conformity of comodities to standards, granting the Emirates Quality Mark for national products, and accrediting testing and calibration laboratories (Climate Control, 2011). ESMA hopes to raise the HVACR standards in the country through sensitizations of the expected standards to consumers and companies. Knowledge management is a crucial part of the sensitization process. KM will help companies achieve a reliable, ethical, and conscious environmental where companies can participate in meeting customer demand for more sustainable offerings. From a long-term perspective, the relationship between knowledge management, organizational trust, creativity and innovation is good to the prosperity of the UAE 2.0 Introduction With the increase in competition and the introduction of IT organizational, the business environment has changed in UAE. The learning system has become an endless cycle that sustains success for business organizations. Organizations have seen the need for new competitive advantage in the new knowledge economy. Knowledge has become a determinant between the survival and the early demise of organizations. There are many studies on the knowledge management (KM) field and its relationship with organizational trust, creativity and innovation. This paper examines the relationship of these basic elements, which includes, but not limited to Knowledge Management, Organizational Trust, creativity and innovation with regards to productivity of organizations in ESMA and the UAE as a whole. 3.0 Knowledge Management Behaviours 3.1 Knowledge Management (KM) Knowledge management (KM) is the process of capturing, developing, effectively using, and sharing organizational knowledge. KM is a crucial element for success in modern organizations. KM efforts focus on organizational objectives that include; innovation, competitive advantage, continuous improvement, and improved performance (WALLACE, 2007). Companies have realised that the need for sharing ideas and awareness and innovation so as to succeed. The key to the growth of companies in UAE is innovation that comes from the development of knowledge. Businesses have discovered that in order to increase their competitive advantage and improve their adaptability, they need to manage their knowledge assets. Organizations need to be more determined in capturing, distributing, sharing, preserving, securing, and valuing the precious knowledge to be able to stay ahead of their competition. 3.2 Knowledge acquisition One of the biggest problems faced in KM involves effectively acquiring vital information. Knowledge acquisition is the process of extracting knowledge from experts and structuring this knowledge to make it readable (BARNES, 2001). The techniques utilized in knowledge acquisition includes interviewing, observations, protocol analysis and brainstorming. In organizations, knowledge acquisition is usually driven by the strategy. An organization determines what knowledge is needed, and then fills in the gap by acquiring new knowledge. Organizations need to find a quick and inexpensive means of finding and correctly using internal and external knowledge. Knowledge acquisition aims at codifying explicit knowledge, and it also aims at converting tacit knowledge into an explicit form. With the development of new technology and the increase in competition, knowledge acquisition has become more crucial in organizations. This determines the long term survival of organizations. 3.3 Knowledge Dissemination Knowledge dissemination in organizations has proven to be a vital part of organizational management of organizational knowledge. Individuals usually do not like sharing their knowledge freely under all circumstances. Management needs to motivate these individuals to create, share, and use knowledge (RAMAN, 2003). Knowledge sharing is key for the success of organizations. Knowledge in itself is not useful when it is not available for employees to use. Knowledge itself also does not flow by its own, employees need to share information. Knowledge sharing as one of the key steps in achieving the overall knowledge management framework. Organization factors that affect knowledge dissemination includes organizational structure, leadership, organizational culture, and information systems. Even the informal way of knowledge sharing in organizations are very effective. That is why Knowledge sharing is essential for organizations and should be encouraged and rewarded. Knowledge sharing is part of the KM system of an organization and the operational objective of KM is to ensure that the right knowledge is available to the right processors at the right time for performing their knowledge activities (Harvard Business School , 1998). Knowledge sharing can also save time and improve the quality by providing appropriate solutions to organizations. However, the success of knowledge sharing is affected by the relationship between the source and the recipient. If the relationship is not healthy, knowledge sharing becomes difficult. 3.4 Responsiveness to Knowledge With globalization and increase in competition, there is constant change in the way people do their operations. Companies need to be very responsive by increasing their responsiveness to knowledge. 4.0 The elements of Interpersonal Trust at Work 4.1 Trust and Faith in Peers The role of trust is very crucial in knowledge management. Trust is very crucial for knowledge based company as marketplace swap of knowledge gives rise to an elevated level of uncertainty and risk. This risk and uncertainty can be reduced by the presence of high level of trust and faith. Knowledge sharing in and among organizations is associated with interpersonal trust (LEHANEY, 2004). Also, organizational effectiveness is associated with knowledge sharing. Only with trust can organizations appropriate use of knowledge will take place. Sharing cannot take place without trust because individual will avoid active socializing. Trust starts at an individual level and then develops into a group and organizational level. 4.2 Faith in Leadership Faith in leadership is crucial in knowledge management. Employees are more confident to share information that they feel is acceptable by top management. They act in ways that is approved by management. Where there is no obvious support from management, information dissemination can be difficult. It is crucial for organizational top management to encourage an open environment where employees are free to share information. This will help organizations succeed. 5.0 Knowledge Responsiveness within the Organization 5.1 Creativity and Innovation Creativity and innovation is the process of creating and applying new knowledge. These two are the very heart of Knowledge Management. Creativity is at the base of innovation both are complementary activities (CLEGG, 2013). There cannot be innovation without creative ideas. The organization of innovation and creative thinking is as a result of creativity in an appropriate organizational culture (DE LA MOTHE, 2001). If creativity must "innovate", then it must take pace beyond the known limits, that is, curiosity must be developed. One of the fundamental points on which business intelligence relies on, is precisely creative thinking. Business management and its decisions and actions, need to be creative and innovation to gain knowledge because they face rapidly changing and ambiguous business environment (MONTANO, 2005). 5.2 Productivity Studies on productivity show that knowledge management affect productivity level. Strategic and operational knowledge increase productivity, improve relations and develop quality that underpins everything that the organisation does. Knowledge management has proved to be an asset to the growth organization. Hence, improved relations, effective productivity, quality product development are made possible by a firm’s ability to manage its knowledge effectively and efficiently. 6.0 Hypothesis From the analysis, this study came up with the following hypothesis; Hypothesis 1. Knowledge management helps organizations achieve their goals. Hypothesis 2. Organizations need to be more creativity, innovation, and productivity to improve knowledge management. Hypothesis 3. For Knowledge management to succeed in organizations there needs to be a high amount of faith, trust, and confidence. 7.0 Methodology 7.1 Participants A set of questions was prepared and given to responders. The responders were both male and female of different racial and cultural background. The method used to select the study group was random; however, this was on a voluntary basis. 7.2 Method of data collection The method used to collect data for this study was the use of questionnaires. This is because the questionnaires were uniform thus increasing the chances of getting uniform data. Uniformity of data increases the ability to compare the data set. The objectives of the questionnaire were indicated in the questionnaire. Respondents were also given the option of maintaining anonymity. Limitation in this method is getting the questionnaires from respondents. Some respondents may request for more time to fill the form but it is never certain that all respondents will return the questionnaires. Another problem that comes with the use of this method is where respondents fail to answer all the questions as required. 7.3 Procedure The questionnaires were randomly given to staff members, and they were to return it via the company’s suggestion box. To increase the number of people who returned the questionnaires, reminders were sent to all recipients through email addresses. 7.4 Results From the data collection and analysis, below are the results showing the correlations and the Average (µ) value Correlations for UAE Sample Sample Size N = 548   Trust KMB Creativity Innovation Productivity Trust 1 KMB 0.400082 1 Creativity 0.2325944 0.2669091 1 Innovation 0.1999394 0.1901472 0.32845674 1 Productivity 0.1169916 0.414309 0.06357093 0.423597396 1 Averages for the UAE Sample Trust KMB Creativity Innovation Productivity µ 4.65 3.39 2.44 2.64 3.1 From the results above, trust is the most crucial part of knowledge management. Trust also affects the level of creativity, innovation, productivity, and knowledge management. 7.5 Challenges As noted in above, limitation in this method is getting the questionnaires from respondents. Some respondents may request for more time to fill the form, but it is never certain that all respondents will return the questionnaires (Foddy, 2001). Another problem that come with the use of this method is where respondents fail to answer all the questions as required. There were also time issues, because most respondent argued that they needed to be given more time to fill the questionnaire. This limited the time taken to analyze the data. 8.0 Conclusion To conclude, it is clear that knowledge management is crucial for the success of organizations. However, for knowledge management to succeed, there needs to be trust, faith, and confidence between employees. 9.0 Time management For the successful completion of this project, below is a breakdown of the time taken per research topic Date and Duration Research Topic Bibliography BARNES, S., 2001. Knowledge management systems: theory and practice. London: Thomson Learning. Clegg, B., 2013. Creativity and Innovation for Managers. s.l.:CRC Press. Climate Control, 2011. ESMA is a positive development. [Online] Available at: http://www.climatecontrolme.com/en/2011/01/esma-positive-development/ [Accessed 19 01 2014]. DE LA MOTHE, J. &. FOREY. D., 2001. Knowledge management in the innovation process. Boston: Kluwer Academic Pub. Foddy, W., 2001. Interviews and Questionnaires. Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press. Harvard Business School , 1998. Harvard business review on knowledge management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. LEHANEY, B., 2004. Beyond knowledge management. s.l.:Hershey, Pa. MONTANO, B., 2005. Innovations of knowledge management.. Hershey : Penns, IRM Press. RAMAN, A. T., 2003. Knowledge management: a resource book. New Delhi : Excel Books. WALLACE, D. P., 2007. Knowledge management: historical and cross-disciplinary themes. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited. Appendices ESMA- Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology Company KM- Knowledge Management UAE- United Arabs Emirates Read More