Question

The internal characteristics of the organization make up critical sources for success (Barney,
1991). Increasing attention has been paid to identifying what characteristics are vital to
organizational success and how they exert their influence on organizational outcomes. Internal
organizational context focuses on broad and relatively stable categories of organizational
characteristics such as structure, culture, and power and political characteristics (Pettigrew,
1979). They constitute an environment where organizational activities take place. There has been
a large volume of studies that examine how the fit between organizational context and
organizational strategy explains variances in organizational performance (Daft, 1995 and
Robbins, 1990). What is lacking in existing literature, though, is an understanding of the
intervening mechanism that explains the paths of the influence from organizational context and
strategy to organizational effectiveness.
Knowledge management plays a potentially mediating role in connecting organizational context
and strategy with organizational effectiveness. Successful knowledge management is believed to
have the potential of enhancing an organization's competitive advantage, customer focus,
employee relations and development, innovation, and lower costs (Skyrme and Arnindon, 1997).
In turn, knowledge management is context-specific, because context determines who participate
and how they participate in the knowledge management process (Nonaka et al., 2000).
Knowledge management could serve as one of the intervening mechanisms through which
organizational context influences organizational effectiveness. However, the mediating role of
knowledge management has not been adequately investigated. Exploration of its potential role as
a mediating factor would provide better understanding of how to leverage it to achieve desirable
organizational goals. This study sets out to do that.
The purpose of this study is to examine the possible mediating effect of knowledge management
on the relationship between organizational culture, structure, strategy and organizational
effectiveness. This study attempts to detect and explain one of the mechanisms through which
organizational contextual and strategic factors are mobilized to achieve higher levels of
organizational effectiveness.

What do you think is the significance of the above research? Clearly justify your answer.

Answer 1

The above research shows the importance of knowledge management and how it makes a difference in the overall effectiveness of an organization. It shows what role knowledge management plays in the connection of organizational context and its strategy with the organizational effectiveness. Knowledge management connects the internal factors of an organization such as structure, culture, strategy, etc. to its overall effectiveness. The process of how knowledge is shared and managed in an organization plays a very vital role in the organizational effectiveness and its eventual success. Some organizations understand the need and significance of knowledge management and therefore they are able to develop competitive advantage, innovation, better customer satisfaction, etc. that affect the overall efficiency and performance of the organization. Better knowledge management creates an environment where operations are very smooth. It results in more clarity and less confusion as the knowledge is created and shared in a very effective manner, which helps in the overall success of an organization.