Knowledge Management Capabilities and Organizational Performance in Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai: The mediating role of Learning Organization

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of knowledge management capabilities on organizational performance in the public sector. Learning organization was included as a mediator to investigate its effect on the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance. The conceptual framework provided a useful perspective to study knowledge management capabilities in a government setting in Dubai. Two hundred and fifty‐five usable questionnaires were collected from the survey. The respondents were executives, managers and directors of the Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. SPSS version 21 and amos version 20 (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IBM_Corporation&redirect=no#IBM Corporation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armonk,_New_York#Armonk, New York, NY, USA) were utilized to test the conceptual model. The findings show that knowledge management capabilities have a positive and significant relationship with organizational performance. Learning organization fully mediates the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance. The study only focuses on the Roads and Transport Authority, which is one of the government agencies in Dubai. Recommendations are provided to offer practitioners alternative solutions to their weaknesses and set strategies to improve the effectiveness of their knowledge management capabilities to promote continuous learning in the organization. This is the first study of knowledge management and learning organization carried out in Dubai or the United Arab Emirates in the public sector. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Current status and promising directions for research on the learning organization

“…Although the emphasis of the DLOQ framework has been on the impact of learning on overall performance at the organizational level, studies examined other relationships with perceptions of dimensions of the learning organization. First, studies investigated the relationships between dimensions of a learning organization and knowledge‐related factors, such as innovation, knowledge transfer, adaptive performance, or knowledge creation (Hernandez & Watkins, ; Ismail, ; K. Kim, ; Y. S. Kim & Marsick, ; Ngah, Tai, & Bontis, ; Song, ; Song, Jeung, & Cho, ; Sta. Maria & Watkins, ).…”

“…First, studies investigated the relationships between dimensions of a learning organization and knowledgerelated factors, such as innovation, knowledge transfer, adaptive performance, or knowledge creation (Hernandez & Watkins, 2003;Ismail, 2005; K. Kim, 2016;Y. S. Kim & Marsick, 2013;Ngah, Tai, & Bontis, 2016;Song, 2008;Song, Jeung, & Cho, 2011;Sta. Maria & Watkins, 2003).…”

What Makes Firms Innovative? The Role of Social Capital in Corporate Innovation

“…Establishing a knowledge management-friendly atmosphere, including the active promotion of CoPs, will increase peoples' awareness of the necessity to share knowledge in an organization [72,87]. CoPs by nature help people jointly develop new knowledge of an organization, and can thus be beneficial in starting new lines of business, quickly solving problems, transferring best practices, and developing professional skills [69,88]. We propose the following based on this line of reasoning:…”

Linking Knowledge Management with Organizational Performance through Organizational Learning: Evidence from Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan

“…In addition to significant determining factors, knowledge management has appeared as an important factor that contributes to the achievement of the successful performance of the organization (Lee & Sukoco, 2007). It argues that it is not enough to focus on knowledge management until the organization is able to generate learning through knowledge (Ngah, Tai, & Bontis, 2016). Organizational learning involves the use of knowledge available over the organization and leads to effective organizational performance (Imran et al, 2017).…”