Supporting Business Managers with Knowledge Management

Abstract

A contingency perspective of knowledge management recognises the need for an alignment of knowledge management initiatives (KMI) with decision making contexts which they support. In order to determine the right KMI-context fit, an empirical study was carried out to investigate the impact of two different types of KMI (technical and social) on business managers’ KMI adoption behavior and decision performance in different decision contexts (simple and complex). The results provide partial support for the contingency view. As expected, the study identified social KMI as the best fit for complex contexts, based on subjects’ superior performance from comparable adoption of both KMI. In contrast, the study identified that both KMI were an equally good fit for simple contexts, based on similar levels of subjects’ performance, but social KMI was preferred in terms of adoption. These findings contribute much needed empirical evidence for research and provide useful guidance for practice. Future investigation is recommended in order to address current limitations and extend research to other open questions in the field of KM. © 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.